République du Cameroun Republic of Cameroon

Paix- Travail – Patrie Peace- work- Fatherland

******** ********
Ministère de l’Enseignement Ministry OF Higher Education
Supérieur *********
******** The University of Maroua
Université de Maroua **********
********* National Advanced School of
Ecole Nationale Supérieure Engineering
Polytechnique de Maroua *********
********** Department of Environnemental
Département des Sciences Sciences
Environnementales

Dr Nde Samuel Che

Department of Environmental Studies, University of
Maroua, National Advanced School of Engineering

Module Code: GEN 325

Topic: Energy & Renewable energy

Google Scholar link:

Research gate link:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/scie
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/S
nce/article/pii/S014765132100072
amuel-Nde 1
DR NDE LECTURE NOTE: PLEASE SORT PERMISSION TO REDISTRIBUTE (COPYWRITE)
5
 LECTURES NOTES:
HYDROELECTRIC POWER
 This PowerPoint is
supportive and
complementary.
Remember to always
refer to the study
articles and
textbooks!!

DR NDE LECTURE NOTE: PLEASE SORT PERMISSION TO REDISTRIBUTE (COPYWRITE) 3

 LEARNING MATERIALS
❑ Use the following link to access the study materials but not limited to it.

❑ N.B. Must Read articles!!

 Renewable energy, non-renewable energy and sustainable development:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/13504509.2019.1595214?needAccess=true
 Progress in renewable energy https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-4120(02)00130-7

 https://rael.berkeley.edu/old_drupal/sites/default/files/old-site-files/2001/Herzog-Lipman-
Kammen-RenewableEnergy-2001.pdf Please must read this...
▪ INTEGRATION OF ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF ENERGY https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Fa-
Farret/publication/4377913_Integration_of_Alternative_Sources_of_Energy/links/616596a1e79
93f536ccc4a02/Integration-of-Alternative-Sources-of-Energy.pdf (Please click here and read this
book. Very Important).
 HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANTS

• Introduction
• Hydropower is the largest renewable resource used for electricity. It plays an essential
role in many regions of the world with more than 150 countries generating
hydroelectric power.
• There is about 700 GW of hydro capacity in operation worldwide, generating 2600
TWh/year (about 19 percent of the world’s electricity production).
• The present worldwide level of hydropower plant technology, self-production of
electric power has gained greatly in popularity because it is associated with the fact
that the majority of rural properties have rivers with water streams and small water
heads that can be used as primary energy
• The first known small hydroelectric power plant was built in Northern Ireland in 1883
to supply energy for an electric train that began with two turbines of 52 hp (1
horsepower = 746 watts).
 Functionality of hydroelectricity power
• Hydroelectric power plants can be driven from a water stream or
accumulation reservoir.
• Run-of-river hydroelectric plants (those without accumulation reservoirs)
are built along a river or a stream without lake formation for the intake of
water.
• The development of a hydroelectric power plant with an accumulation
reservoir demands far more complex hydrological and topographical
studies to determine the site elevation.
• Such data are of great importance, because they are used directly to
establish the watercourse flow for calculation of the power to be produced
by the power plant
• The water use is total, and the civil works have an effect on the
environment proportional to the size of the plant
 Functionality of hydroelectricity power

• A reservoir system also has a higher generation potential than that of a water stream,
compensating for the larger capital investment.
• The lake formed by water accumulation can be used for other purposes, such as
recreation, creation of fisheries, irrigation, and urbanization.
❑Useful data for hydroelectric power plant projects might include:
➢Local availability of materials necessary for the construction of a dam (when
applicable)
➢Labor availability for cost reduction
➢Reasonable distance of the power plant from the public network, to allow future
interconnection through a single-phase ground return or a single-phase, three-phase,
or low-voltage dc link
 How it works ??

➢Hydroelectric power convert kinetic

energy in flowing rivers to into electric
energy
➢The falling water or flowing rivers
turns a propeller like a piece called
turbines
➢The turbines turn a metal shaft in an
electric generator which produces
electricity.
 Capacity and Potential
• There is vast unexploited potential
worldwide for new hydro plants,
particularly in the developing countries of
Asia, Latin America and Africa while most
of the best sites have already been
developed in Europe and North America.
• There is also upgrading potential at
existing schemes though any future hydro
projects will, in general, have to satisfy
stricter requirements both
environmentally and economically than
they have in the past.
 Reflection: What about the case of Cameroon?

• Assignment 1.

• Analysis of the newly construction 420 Megawatt Natchtigal hydroelectric power

station on the Sanaga River and discuss the viability of this project and how it can
contribute to boost the economy of Cameroon.

• Assignment 2.

• Further discuss any other hydroelectric power station that has been constructed in
Cameroon.
 DETERMINATION OF THE USEFUL POWER
• Ordinary turbines and waterwheels use the energy that can be evaluated as the sum of the three forms of
energy given by Bernoulli’s theorem.
• This expression remains constant for a given cross section and position in a channel:

𝜈2 𝑝 𝑝
+h+ =
2𝑔 𝜌𝑔 𝜌𝑔𝑄
Where v = ¼ water flow speed (m/s)
g = gravity constant (= 9.81)(m/s2)
h = height of the water (m)
p = pressure of the water (N/m2)
𝜌 = density of the water (kg/m3) (≅ 1000.00)
P = power (kg . m/s) (1 hp = 75 kg . m/s = 746 W)
Q = flow of the watercourse (m3/s)
 Features of hydroelectric generation plant
❑Civil Works
• Civil works include construction of a dam (or water storage facility), a water intake (to
divert a river from its normal course), power piping, a reservoir, forced piping, a
balance chimney, a machine house, or a spillway (to return water to its normal
course).
• Such conventional facilities cost a lot of money and require a civil engineer who is
expert in the mechanics of soils, geology, and structures to set up the project and to
follow it through the building stages
• When sufficient height and water flow are available for a small power plant, a dam
may not be needed
• The water will be used in essentially the same proportion as it is available in the river.
Such a system is known as a run-of-river plant. A portion of the stream flow is simply
diverted to the powerhouse and, once used, is returned to the river.
 GENERATING UNIT
• A generating unit is formed by a primary hydraulic machine and a generator together
with such auxiliary equipment as a regulator (electromechanical, electroelectronic, or
electronic), a water admission valve, an electrical command board, and an inertial
flywheel.
• Regulation Systems
• Regulation systems maintain voltage and rotation at constant levels, thereby
maintaining the frequency of the generating unit within the variation limits of the
electric network demands.
• When acquiring a regulator, its cost, the distance of the powerhouse to the load, and
the load type should be taken into account
• When considering cost, it is advisable to choose a regulator for turbine powers above
20 kW. In smaller turbines, regulation can be achieved by load adjustment, manual
control of water flow, or through a simplified control for small integrated generating
units
 Butterfly Valves
• Butterfly valves are used in small hydroelectric power plants with metallic forced
piping.
• They block water flow to the turbine during maintenance work and provide an
additional resource for blocking the turbine in case of system failure. They are installed
at the powerhouse by means of flanged connections, between the forced piping and the
snail-shaped box housing the turbine.
❑WATERWHEELS
• Waterwheels are quite primitive and simple machines, usually built of wood or steel,
with shovels of steel blades fixed regularly around their circumference. The water
pushes the shovels tangentially around the wheel.
• The water does not exert thrust action or shock on the shovels as is the case with
turbines. The water thrusting on the shovels develops torque on the shaft, and the
wheel rotates
 WATERWHEELS conti….
• Such machines are relatively massive, work with
low angular speeds, and are of low efficiency, due to
losses by friction, turbidity, incomplete filling of the
buckets (or cubes), and other causes
• The most common is the wheel with upper buckets,
so called because it consists of fixed shovels around
a wheel, filled with water coming in at the top of the
machine
• This type of wheel is also called hydraullic motor
and it is driven by potential or gravity, because the
water accumulates in the small compartments of the
half-wheel out of the water flow. The weight of the Waterwheel of the upper bucket
water provokes a motor torque in the sense of its
downstream drainage.
 WATERWHEELS conti….

• In another type, known as a lower pushed

wheel, water causes a thrust on the lower
part of the wheel
• Such wheels can be mounted floating on a
body of water or inserted into the water
flow
• This assembly is advantageous because it
follows the potential variation of the stream
and maintains almost constant torque.
Waterwheel of a lower bucket
 TURBINES
• Turbines are wheels driven by some fluid in movement that makes them rotate by
action of the energy contained in them (in potential or kinetic form) on slats that can
have several formats
• Several types of turbines are manufactured in a number of sites worldwide with
projects and construction somehow perfected. They are more compact, made from
melted metal, and usually operate at high rates of rotation and with high mechanical
efficiency.
❑Use of the following types of turbines is recommended:
• Pelton turbine
• Francis turbine
• Michel–Banki turbine
• Kaplan or propeller hydraulic turbine
• Deriaz turbine
➢The choice of turbine type depends on the application range, primarily on height and
water flow and other criteria, such as maintenance, turbine cost and sensibility
 Types contin…

• Modern hydro turbines can convert as much as 90 percent of the available energy into
electricity
• There is also significant, widespread activity in developing small, mini and micro
hydro plants. At least forty countries, particularly in Asia and Europe, have plants
under construction and even more have plants planned. China, Brazil, Canada,
Turkey, Italy, Japan and Spain all have plans for more than 100 MW of new capacity.
• Small Hydro
• Small-scale hydro is mainly ‘run of river,’ so does not involve the construction of large
dams and reservoirs.
• it can generally produce some electricity on demand (at least at times of the year when
an adequate flow of water is available) with no need for storage or backup systems
• Small hydro has a large, and as yet untapped, potential in many parts of the world. It
depends largely on already proven and developed technology with scope for further
development and optimization.
 Environmental and Social Impacts
• Although hydroelectricity is generally considered a clean energy source, it is not totally
devoid of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and it can often have significant adverse
socio-economic impacts.
• There are arguments now that large-scale dams actually do not reduce overall GHG
emissions when compared to fossil fuel power plant
• To build a dam significant amounts of land need to be flooded often in densely inhabited
rural area, involving large displacements of usually poor, indigenous peoples.
• Mitigating such social impacts represents a significant cost to the project, which if it is
even taken into consideration, often not done in the past, can make the project
economically and socially unviable
• Environmental concerns are also quite significant, as past experience has shown. This
includes reduction in biodiversity and fish populations, sedimentation that can greatly
reduce dam efficiency and destroy the river habitat, poor water quality, and the spread of
water-related diseases.
 Conclusion
• Hydropower is a significant source of electricity worldwide and will likely continue to
grow especially in the developing countries.
• While large dams have become much riskier investment there still remains much
unexploited potential for small hydro projects around the world
• It is expected that growth of hydroelectricity will continue but at a slower rate than
that of the 70’s and 80’s.
• Thus, the fraction of hydroelectricity in the portfolio of primary sources of energy,
which is today at 19 percent, is expected to decrease in the future.
• Improvements and efficiency measures are needed in dam structures, turbines,
generators, substations, transmission lines, and environmental mitigation technology
if hydropower’s role as a clean renewable energy source is to continue to be supported.