Distributed Generation &

Renewable Energy
Technologies

By
Mohammed A.
SMALL SCALE
HYDROPOWER

PLANT

2
Introduction :

Operating Principle:

 Hydro-electric power is generated by the

flow of water through turbine, turning the
blades of the turbine.
 A generator shaft connected to this
turbine also turns and hence generates
electricity.

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Continued…

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MAIN COMPONENT OF HPP

The main components of a hydel power

plant are:

 Dam/Reservoir/Large buffer tank

 Penstock
 Power House
a)Turbines
b)Generators
c)Step-up Transformers

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Classification based on capacity:

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Classification based on head:

Depending on head:
Ultra low head : below 3 meter

Low head : above 3 mtr and upto 40 mtr

Medium/high head: above 40 mtr

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Power Equation:

 The power that is obtainable from a stream

depends primarily on two factors.
 These are, a) Head b) Flow
 The head is the vertical height from the top of
the penstock to the bottom of the penstock.
 Larger the head, higher will be the speed of the
turbine and larger will be the power output.
 The flow is the volume of water which flows in
one second.
Energy= m.g.h Joules,
Where , m = mass of water = Kg
g = acceleration due to gravity = 9.81
m/s2
h = height = meter 8
Continued…

Where,
ρ= density of water = Kg/m3
Q = discharge = m3
g = acceleration due to gravity = 9.81 m/s2
h = height = meter

Where ρ= density of water = Kg/m3

dQ /dt = rate of discharge = m3/s
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Continued…
g = acceleration due to gravity = 9.81 m/s2
h = height = meter
1 Kilowatt-Hour = 1000 watts x 3600 seconds =
3.6e6 watt-second = 3.6e6 Joules
1 m3= 1000 liters
Considering an efficiency of 70 to 75%, the
hydraulic power is given by

Where
h = Head in meters
dQ/dt = Rate of discharge in m3/s.

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 Classification of Turbines:
 The turbine is a device which converts the hydraulic
power from the water to rotating mechanical energy.

 There are several turbines that have been developed

for specific purposes & based on…existing head, the
quantity of water available, the direction of water flow
on blades & the name of inventor.

 Turbines are broadly classified into

a)Impulse turbines for high heads.
b)Reaction turbines for low heads.
c)Submersible propeller turbines.
 Some of the turbines are Elton, cross flow, turbo,
Francis, Harris etc.
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Specific Speed:
 The specific speed is a figure which gives a
fundamental basis comparison between turbines of
different types.
 It may be defined as the speed at which the turbine
would run (at its desired efficiency) under unit head so
as to produce unit power.
 The specific speed is calculated as….

Where, ns = specific speed

n = speed of the turbine in rpm
P = output of turbine in kW
H = head of water on turbine in meter

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Continued…..

 The specific speed depends on the turbine type and

design. The ranges of ns are given in table below.

 It infers that high-head operational turbines have a

low value of specific speed while low-head turbines
have a high value of ns.

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 Range of applications:
 Apart from understanding about the various turbines
suitable for small hydropower, it is necessary to select a
suitable turbine for a given project.

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Continued…..
 The types of turbines that would be useful at
various combinations of head and desired power
output are shown in figure over a range of heads
and power from 3-300 m and 10-1000 kW with
the following assumption.

The rpm is in the range of 600 – 3600

 Direct drive
 specific speed in the range of optimum efficiency for a
given design
At constant n & ns the head is related to the standard
power equation.

 The upper limit represents the maximum rpm &

minimum ns and the lower boundary is determined
from the lowest rpm and maximum ns without
cavitating.
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Civil works for SHP facilities:

 Small hydropower projects have distinct

attractive features, simplicity in design, short
gestation period, environmental friendly,
resources available locally and suitable for
decentralized application.

 Having identified a potential site, a feasibility

study is conducted to decide whether the project
be designed and constructed after considering
four major parameters.
Water flow record
Available head
Location
Economic Analysis
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 Continued…
 Water flow record: water flow in river or canal should be
available round the year to make the project viable to the
users.

 Available head: High water head schemes (in hilly areas)

need smaller quantity of water to produce the desired
power. Low head scheme (in plains) have to handle large
quantities of water, consequently the civil structures and
the generating plant tend to be comparatively costly.

 Location: The project site should be located within a

reasonable distance from the users. This is particularly
applicable to independent schemes in isolated hilly areas.
In plains, the generated power can be fed into the existing
grid.
 Economic Analysis: Economic feasibility is the evaluation of
project’s cost and the benefits. The project is deemed
feasible when the benefit exceeds cost.
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Major Components of SHP Projects:

The major components of the hydro power

projects are….

1. Diversion Weir
2. Desilting Tank
3. Water Conductor system
4. Forebay
5. Penstock, thrust block and surge tank
6. Spillway
7. Power house
8. Tail race

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Continued….

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 Continued….
1. Diversion Weir and Intake:
Generally a diversion weir is used to divert
river water to intake channel.
2. Desilting tank:
A desilting tank is constructed to remove
pebbles and coarse suspended material in order
to prevent erosion of turbine blades. The abrasion
effect increases as the head increases. The
desilting tank is periodically flushed to remove
sediments.
3. Water conductor system:
A water conductor system from intake to
forebay is designed with minimum head loss and
little water seepage. An aqueduct is provided to
cross a hilly stream & sometime a siphon is
constructed at such crossing.
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Continued….

4. Forebay:
A forebay is a large tank constructed with
reinforced concrete & stone masonry. It is at the
downstream and at the end of the canal having
sufficient capacity to provide water for small
changes in generation. When the forebay is used
as balancing reservoir, about 4 to 6 hrs storage
facility is needed.
A forebay is necessary to provide minimum
head over the penstock intake & also to prevent
entry of air into penstock.

5. Penstock:
The penstock is used to feed water to the
generating machine in power house.

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Continued….

Thurst/anchor blocks are provided wherever

penstock changes direction to counteract unbalanced
pressure and forces of momentum changes.(figure)

6. Spillway:
A spillway arrangement is provided at the
penstock intake and it doesn’t allow the water level
to rise and flood the area during sudden load
rejection. An opening is provided in the forebay at the
maximum water level and the spilled water is
discharges in the river.

7. Powerhouse:
In the powerhouse turbine generator control
panels and auxiliary equipment are installed &
operated. A firm foundation for the turbine & the
generator is essential. 22
Continued…

8. Tail Race:
A tail race is a water channel, used to drain
down the water discharged from the draft tube to
the river. The tail race must maintain a proper
tailwater elevation so as to prevent cavitation
and inefficient operation of propeller turbine.

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Self excited based power generation scheme

Drawing grid power to remote locations &

regions is very expensive, particulary above 10
km from the urban centre. Therefore standalone
autonomous generating units to meet the local
electricity requirement would be ideally suitable.

in standalone applications the provision of

low cost energy conversion schemes are best
suitable. Induction Generator with its many
advantage like ruggedness, easily available, less
maintenance, absence of dc excitation provides
an attractive replacement to synchronous
generator, especially for stand alone power
generation.

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 Continued….

 SEIG based Micro Hydel System:

A stand alone
Micro hydel system consist of hydro turbine driven
generator feeding a load (fig).

Varying power demand of the consumer has to

be met either by controlling the turbine or the
generator. For a low power unit, controlled turbine
would be very complex & expensive making it
prudent(Careful and sensible; marked by sound
judgment) to develop a load controller.

since the mech. i/p from the turbine is from

water fall and there is no provision for storing the
energy for future use, the available i/p can fully be
converted into electrical energy to eliminate the
need of controller for the turbine. 25
 Continued…

 Varying power demand of the consumer across the

SEIG terminals in parallel with the consumer load,
since the i/p hydro power is essentially constant, the
load controller diverts the power in excess of the
consumer load.

 In a standalone grid independent system since there is

no additional source of VAR other than the excitation
capacitors, SEIG gives a very poor performance in case
of lagging loads. Additional VAR has to be supplied
externally for improving voltage regulation in case of
reactive loads. In this scheme, electronic switching of
additional capacitor is employed for VAR compensation.

 SEIG based power generation schemer experimentally

tried on 3 configuration. 26
Continued…..

1. Single Phase SEIG feeding single phase

load:
A specially designed two winding 1-phase
Induction machine with load across the main
winding & excitation capacitor across the
auxiliary winding works as a single phase SEIG.
Self excitation of the generator begins by the
action of either a residual magnetism of the iron
core or change in the excitation capacitors.

2. 3-phase SEIG feeding 3-phase load:

An ordinary 3-phase induction m/c with
balanced 3-phase capacitors connected across
the stator winding works as a 3-phase SEIG.
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Continued…
3. 3-phase SEIG feeding 1-phase load:
Use of 1-phase induction m/c of integral kW
ratings are uneconomical as compared to equivalent size 3-
phase induction machines. Therefore the concept of 3-phase
SEIG for 1-phase load has been investigate in view of using
standard 3-phase I.M. to feed 1-phase loads.

For operation as a 1-phase generator, with

minimum unbalance in winding currents, it is found that the
max. power can be obtained by connecting particular values
of capacitors in ratio 1:2 across any of the two windings.
There is no need to connect capacitor across the third
winding.

in such configuration, it is found that the m/c can

supply upto 80% of the rated 3-phase o/p without exceeding
the rated winding currents of the stator.
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Supply Connected Induction Generator:

 If the supply connected induction machine is

driven at above synchronous speed, so that the
slip becomes negative (i.e. nr > ns), a torque is
supplied to the rotor rather than taken by the
rotor and therefore the machine acts as a
generator, supplying power to the network.

However, it still takes its magnetizing current

from the supply in order to create the rotating
field, just as though it were a motor. The full load
power o/p is achieved at a slip of similar value
(but negative) to the full load motoring slip.

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Stand Alone Induction Generator

 The magnetizing current of an induction machine

can be supplied by the capacitor (total or partial).
In fact capacitors are often fitted to the large
induction machine and supply-connected IG to
reduce the reactive current drawn from the supply.
Specially when the power/electricity company
imposes the charges for poor power factor.

 In case of stand alone I.G., the capacitors are the

only external source of magnetizing current.
Therefore, in order to obtain the required operating
voltage at the desired frequency, the amount of
capacitance must be carefully chosen.

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 Remanent Magnetism:

 For a voltage build up, sufficient remanent(residual)

magnetism must be present in the rotor.

 Remanent magnetism is the initial magnetism

present in the rotor steel. It is generally sufficient to
produce a small voltage of about a volt, at
synchronous speed with no capacitance connected.

 There may be insufficient magnetism if, it was last

used.
The machine have large impact or generation
collapsed with a resistive load connected.

 Remanent magnetism dependent upon the type of

iron/steel used.
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Controller for SEIG:

 The control technique used to maintain the

generated voltage & the frequency at its rated
value is.. to maintain the total load connected to
the machine at near constant using a ballast
load.

 Since the terminal voltage under this condition is

constant, voltage sensing is used to control the
ballast load.

 The ballast load is a variable load where its

resistance is controlled so as to maintain the
consumer load plus ballast load at a constant. A
schematic of such a scheme is shown in figure. 32
Schematic of a Small Hydro Scheme

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Continued…….
 The ballast load can have many configurations.
Thyristor phase controlled ballast load :
One way of obtaining a variable load is to use a
resistor with two anti-parallel thyristors operating in
phase control mode as shown in figure.
By changing the firing angle β, the fundamental
value of the current going through the resistor-
thyristor circuit can be controlled.
When β=0˚, full load current passes
through the resistor-thyristor circuit, thus giving max.
load.
When β=180˚, current through the resistor-
thyristor circuit is zero.
For the values of β in between 0 to 180˚, current
through the ballast load varies between its max. &
zero.
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Figure….continued..

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Continued….

 However, as β increases the displacement factor

of the resistor-thyristor circuit increases, thus
absorbing reactive power.

 Under this condition, the resistor-thyristor circuit

draws reactive current from excitation capacitors,
thus reducing the effective capacitance available
to supply magnetization current to the induction
generator.

 This will cause a slight reduction in the generated

voltage.

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Continued….

Thyristor Switched Ballast Load:

Another circuit, which doesn’t absorb displacement
current, uses a number of resistors with a switched
thyristor scheme.
In this circuit, the back-to-back thyristor pair
operates either as a closed or open switch. Hence the
load may be varied by controlling the number of
parallel resistor-thyristor circuits, which are ‘on’.
Therefore, the variation of the load is in steps &
smooth variation is not possible.
In order to get a better resolution from the circuit
in figure, resistors can be selected in binary weighted
form. If R1=R, R2=2R and R3=4R then the load can be
varied from 0 to 7R, in steps of R.
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Continued…figure

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Continued…figure

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Continued…

High Frequency Ballast:

As discussed above, the thyristor based
circuits have some drawbacks. A circuit that
exhibits smoothly varying ballast load with Unity
power factor operation is shown in figure.

In this circuit, the electronic switch is

operated with high frequency, thus chopping the
rectified AC voltage. The effective resistance of
the ballast load can be changed by varying the
duty ratio of the switch.

Another figure shows the voltage across the

ballast load and the AC side current when the
consumer load is only 50% of the rated load of
the machine.
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Continued…

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Continued…

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Continued…

 As from the voltage & current wave in figure, Due

to the inductance of the generator, the current
drawn from the generator is nearly sinusoidal
with a super-imposed high frequency ripple
component.

 The electronic switch may be a transistor, a

MOSFET or an IGBT.

 The controller varies the ON (mark) and OFF

(space) times, known as the mark-space ratio, in
order to control the power dissipation in the
ballast load.

 The on time can be varied over the full range of

0% to 100%.
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Continued….

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