HARAMAYA INSTITUTE OF

TECHNOLOGY(HIT)
DEPARTMENT OF HYDRAULIC AND
WATER RESOURCES ENGINEERING
SMALL SCALE HYDROPOWER AND AES

Chapter 2
Hydraulics and Hydrology of
Hydropower
Solved problems and Assignment
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Example 2. The following is the record of average yearly flow in a
river for 15 years. If the available head is 15 m, construct the FDC
and PDC for the river.

Year 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964
Flow
(m3/s) 905 865 1050 1105 675 715 850 775 590

Year 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970

Flow (m3/s) 625 810 885 1025 1150 925

Solution
 The yearly flow values are arranged in ascending order (see
table below). The power corresponding to each flow values are
calculated assuming the head (=15 m) to be constant. Then,
FDC and PDC are plotted on the same graph. 4
 Rank Flow in Rank(m) Percentage of time Power (=9.81 QH)
ascending exceeded [kW]
order (m3/s) =(m/n)*100
(1) (2) (3) (4)
1 590 15 100.0 86819
2 625 14 93.4 91969
3 675 13 86.7 99326
4 715 12 80.0 105212
5 775 11 73.4 114041
6 810 10 66.7 119192
7 850 9 60.0 125078
8 865 8 53.4 127285
9 885 7 46.7 130228
10 905 6 40.0 133171
11 925 5 33.3 136114
12 1025 4 26.7 150829
13 1050 3 20.0 154508
14 1105 2 13.3 162601
15 1150 1 6.7 169223 5
n = number of records ; m = number of times flow exceeded or equaled
 1200 180000

Flow Power
170000
1100

160000

1000
150000

140000
900
Flow, m3/s

130000

Power, kW
800
120000

110000
700

100000

600
90000

500 80000
0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0

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% of time equalled or exceeded
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** Find out the diversity factor and annual load factor of generating
station, which supplies loads to various consumers as follows
Lighting load=500kw
Household power=200kw
Commercial load=100kw
Industrial consumer=2000kw
And assume that the maximum demand on the station is
3000kw and the number of units (KWh) produced per year
is 5*10^5

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CENG 6803
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ASSIGNMENT

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EXAMPLE(ASSIGNMENT) -3
 The following data are obtained from the records of the mean monthly flows
of a river for 10 years. The head available at the site of the power plant is 60 m
and the plant efficiency is 80%.

Mean No. of 1. Plot the FDC and PDC

monthly occurrences 2. Determine the mean monthly flow
flow range (in 10-yr that can be expected and the average
(m3/s) period) power that can be developed.
100-149 3 3. Indicate the effect of storage on the
FDC obtained.
150-199 4
4. What would be the trend of the curve
200-249 16 if the mean weekly flow data are used
250-299 21 instead of monthly flows?
300-349 24
350-399 21
400-449 20
450-499 9
500-549 2
EXAMPLE 4
 Consider the yearly load duration curve for a certain load center
to be a straight line from 20 to 3 MW. To meet this load, three
hydropower units, two rated at 10 MW each and one at 5 MW are
installed. Determine:
 Load factor (LF)
 Capacity factor (CF)
 Utilization factor (UF)

MW

20

Time (%) 100

 Example 6. A run-of-river hydroelectric plant with an effective
head of 22 m and plant efficiency of 80% supplies power to a
variable load as given below:
 Draw the load curve and determine
 (i) The minimum average daily flow to supply the indicated load
 (ii) Poundage required to produce the necessary power at the peak
 (iii) The plant load factor

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 CENG 6803
Q#. A run of river plant with an installed capacity of 15000kw
operates at 28% load factor when it serves as a peak load stations.
Determine the minimum discharge in the stream so that it may
serve as base load stations. Plant efficiency may be assumed to be
70% when working under a head of 18m. 15
Theoretical problems

1. What are the classifications of energy sources? Write the

advantage and disadvantage of conventional energy sources.

2. Draw rough sketch of a typical hydropower plant showing all its

components and discuss the components.

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