Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 268 views

    Hydro Power Calculation:: Power Head X Flow X Gravity

    Uploaded by

    Izaz Rahman
    The document discusses how to calculate the power generated by a hydroelectric power plant. It provides the basic power equation as: Power = Head x Flow x Gravity. It then gives an example calculation using a head of 12 meters and a flow of 20 liters per second, which equals about 2,354 Watts of available power. However, it notes that real world systems are not 100% efficient, and efficiency is typically around 50-60%, so the example system could generate around 1.1-1.4 kW of electricity taking efficiencies into account.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Hydro Power Calculation:: Power Head X Flow X Gravity

    Uploaded by

    Izaz Rahman
    268 views2 pages
    The document discusses how to calculate the power generated by a hydroelectric power plant. It provides the basic power equation as: Power = Head x Flow x Gravity. It then gives an example calculation using a head of 12 meters and a flow of 20 liters per second, which equals about 2,354 Watts of available power. However, it notes that real world systems are not 100% efficient, and efficiency is typically around 50-60%, so the example system could generate around 1.1-1.4 kW of electricity taking efficiencies into account.

    Original Description:

    ghy

    Original Title

    Power

    Copyright

    © Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The document discusses how to calculate the power generated by a hydroelectric power plant. It provides the basic power equation as: Power = Head x Flow x Gravity. It then gives an example calculation using a head of 12 meters and a flow of 20 liters per second, which equals about 2,354 Watts of available power. However, it notes that real world systems are not 100% efficient, and efficiency is typically around 50-60%, so the example system could generate around 1.1-1.4 kW of electricity taking efficiencies into account.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    268 views2 pages

    Hydro Power Calculation:: Power Head X Flow X Gravity

    Uploaded by

    Izaz Rahman
    The document discusses how to calculate the power generated by a hydroelectric power plant. It provides the basic power equation as: Power = Head x Flow x Gravity. It then gives an example calculation using a head of 12 meters and a flow of 20 liters per second, which equals about 2,354 Watts of available power. However, it notes that real world systems are not 100% efficient, and efficiency is typically around 50-60%, so the example system could generate around 1.1-1.4 kW of electricity taking efficiencies into account.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Hydro Power Calculation:

    The generated power by a hydroelectric power plant can be calculated from the equation given below: Power = Head x Flow x Gravity where power is measured in Watts, head in metres, flow in litres per second, and acceleration due to gravity in metres per second per second. The acceleration due to gravity is approximately 9.81 metres per second per second - i.e. each second an object is falling, its speed increases by 9.81 metres per second (until it hits its terminal velocity). Before embarking on any hydro power generation project it is essential to survey the proposed site to calculate the amount of available hydro power. The two vital factors to consider are the flow and the head of the stream or river. The flow is the volume of water which can be captured and re-directed to turn the turbine generator, and the head is the distance that the water will fall on its way to the generator. The larger the flow - i.e. the more water there is, and the higher the head - i.e. the higher the distance the water falls - the more energy is available for conversion to electricity. Double the flow and double the power, double the head and double the power again. A low head site has a head of below 10 metres. In this case we need to have a good volume of water flow if we have to generate much electricity. A high head site has a head of above 20 metres. In this case we can get away with not having a large flow of water, because gravity will give what we have an energy boost. Therefore it is very simple to calculate how much hydro power we can generate. Let's say for example that we have a flow of 20 litres per second with a head of 12 metres. By putting these figures in the equation and we will see that: Generated Power = Head x Flow x Gravity =12 x 20 x 9.81 = 2,354 Watts

    Real World Hydro Power Calculation:


    In the example above a 12 metre head with a 20 litres per second flow rate equated to just over 2.3kW of available power. Sadly it is not possible to tap all of that power - nothing is 100% efficient, however, hydro power turbine generators are very efficient when compared to wind turbine generators and solar panels. Efficiencies of around 70% can be expected which is to say that 70% of the hydraulic energy of the flowing water can be turned into mechanical energy spinning the turbine generator. The remaining 30% is lost. Energy is again lost in converting the mechanical energy into electrical energy (electricity) and so at the end of the day you can expect a complete system efficiency

    of around 50-60%. In our example where 2.3kW of power was available - we can therefore expect to generate around 1.1-1.4kW of electricity. Therefore, in real world the generated power = System efficiency x Head x Flow x Gravity

    You might also like