Project Report

Power Plant Engineering (ME 252)

Delhi Technological University

(Formerly Delhi College of Engineering)

Bawana Road, Delhi – 110042

Submitted by – Submitted to-

Shivam Singh (2K20/EE/257) Dr. PV Ram Kumar

Siddharth Aggarwal (2K20/EE/267)

Siddharth Sharma (2K20/EE/268)

Tejas Sharma (2K20/EE/281)

Tushar Aggarwal (2K20/EE/284)

V Sayiram (2K20/EE/292)
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to express our greatest appreciation to the all individuals who have
helped and supported us throughout the project. I am thankful to our POWER
PLANT ENGINEERING teacher, Mr. PV Ram Kumar, for his ongoing support
during the project, from initial advice, and provision of contacts in the first stages
through ongoing advice and encouragement.

A special acknowledgement goes to our colleagues who helped us in completing

the project by exchanging interesting ideas and sharing their experience.

I wish to thank our parents as well for their undivided support and interest who
inspired us and encouraged us to go our own way, without whom would be
unable to complete my project.

At the end, I want to thank my friends who displayed appreciation to my work and
motivated me to continue my work.

Thank you!
 INDEX

THE FOLLOWING TOPICS HAVE BEEN REVIEWED IN THE REPORT:

1. REVIEW PAPER ON HYDROPOWER PLANT MODELING AND

ASSOCIATED SOFTWARE

2. SMALL HYDROPOWER PLANT ANALYSIS AND DEVELOPMENT

3. ENVIRONMENTALLY ENHANCED TURBINES FOR HYDROPOWER

PLANTS: CURRENT TECHNOLOGY AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVE

4. A NEW GENERATION OF SMALL HYDRO AND PUMPED-HYDRO

POWER PLANTS: ADVANCES AND FUTURE CHALLENGES

5. THE ROLE OF HYDROELECTRIC POWER AND THE CONTRIBUTION

OF SMALL HYDROPOWER PLANTS FOR SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT IN TURKEY
 REVIEW PAPER ON HYDROPOWER PLANT
MODELING AND ASSOCIATED SOFTWARES

INTRODUCTION
Hydropower plants convert the potential energy of water head to mechanical energy by
using a hydraulic turbine. The hydro-turbines are in turn connected to a generator that
converts the mechanical energy to electric energy. The hydropower plant is basically made
of a generator, a turbine, a penstock and wicket gates. Generally, two types of turbines are
used: impulse turbine for instance Pelton Wheel turbine and reaction turbine like Francis
and Kaplan turbine. The generator and turbine are mostly connected directly by a vertical
shaft. The existence of a high head produces fast flowing water that flows through the
penstock and arrives at the turbine. The flow of water into the turbine is controlled by the
wicket gates. Wicket gates can be adjusted together with the opening of pivot around the
periphery of the turbine to control the quantity of water that flows into the turbine. Servo-
actuators, controlled by the governor, help to adjust these gates

Fig 1: Components of a Hydropower plant

The turbine-generator set is powered by water, and the rotating generator generates energy.
The stored water with a clean hydraulic head has potential energy at this stage. Before
reaching the turbine, it loses potential energy and gains kinetic energy as it passes through
the penstock. A close examination of the process of energy generation by hydropower
plants reveals that the penstock-turbine system, the electric generator, and other control
systems have a significant impact on hydropower plant models.
 LITERATURE REVIEW
Several models of hydropower generation were investigated by scientists. The existing
models depend upon the requirement involved in the study. Some of these models were
simply analytical while others were constructed from robust system models showing the
dynamic characteristics.

In reality, the performance of a hydro-turbine is mainly determined by the parameters of

the water supplied to the turbine; some of these parameters include the effects of water
inertia, water compressibility, pipe wall elasticity in penstock.

The effect of water inertia is to ensure that changes in turbine flow do normally lag behind
changes in turbine gate opening for a smooth operation. On the other hand, the effect of
elasticity introduces some element of pressure and flow in the pipe, a phenomenon known
as “water hammer”. Other parameters of the flowing water also affect the flow of water
and indirectly affect the turbine speed which is directly connected to the generator. In order
to have constant power generation it is therefore necessary to implement strong control
measures to overcome the variability of the initial flowing water. However, the most
general model of hydropower plants starts with the determination of hydraulic power.
Hydraulic power is exhibited whenever a volume of water falls from a higher level to a
lower level. The general formula for the determination of hydraulic power is shown by as
follows Ph = ρgQH

Where: Ph is the mechanical power produced at the turbine shaft (Watts), ρ is the density
of water (1000 kg/m3), g is the acceleration due to gravity (9.81 m/s2), Q is the water flow
rate passing through the turbine (m3/s), H is the effective pressure head of water across the
turbine (m).

The hydraulic power is later transformed into mechanical power by the turbine. Many
attempts have been made in the past to come out with an analytical model of hydraulic
turbine. This has always been a difficult task due to the nature of hydropower generation
systems that exhibit a high level of dynamism and nonlinear behavior.
The mechanical power available at the output of the turbine is determined as follows

Pm = ŋt ∙ Ph
Where ŋt is the efficiency of the turbine.

The determination of the hydraulic turbine efficiency is very challenging and for this matter
robust mathematical models are used to numerically compute it.

Where

Q is the flow rate of water, ω is the angular speed of the turbine rotor, R is the radius of the
hydraulic turbine blades (m) and A is the area swept by the rotor blades (m2). This is a
pure analytical model that can be programmed and simulated with Matlab to show the
power exhibited by a hydropower plant with variation of parameters related to water flow
models. In general, linear models are used for small signal performance of turbines whereas
non-linear models are more appropriate for large domain signal-time simulations. On the
other hand several models were not made analytical but consisted of simulated systems
under various software.

For instance, one of the models presented in a paper was built in Simulink and consisted
of the following dynamic submodels: controller, hydraulic and mechanical system, turbine
regulator. Figure 2 presents the block system of the entire model with its sub-systems.

The type of turbine is Francis with a rated power of 300 (MW), a rated flow of 218.5m3/s
and a rated head of 151.2m. Power generation and speed control model have been further
modeled analytically and simulated. Such system is more adapted to increasing power
generation than the analytical model because it is built on feedback that is a solution to
high level differential equations that best describe the dynamic nature of the flowing water.
The controller includes artificial intelligence such as PID control.
 Fig 2: General representation of sub-models
Where

- Ptarget: Power set-point

- ΔW: Deviation of Energy
- Ytref: Set-point position governor guide vane
- Yt : Position governor guide vane
- PT: Power of the turbine

A similar study was carried out which investigated a simulation and modeling of
hydropower plant to time response during different gate states. In fact, gate state of
hydraulic turbine does affect the asynchronous condition of Hydropower plant which
depends upon the speed variation in turbine-generator set and represents a hydropower
plant by integrating a linear time invariant model of gate, penstock, turbine and generator
in order to find out the dynamic response to gate input. The simulation results show that
the steady state speed of the turbine depends on gate position and head. This is possible
due to the fact that the gate position and head determine flow and volume of water that
rotate the turbine which in term determine the speed of the shaft coupled to the generator.
The stability of the water parameters will determine the permanency of the steady state
speed. However, the transient regime can be managed by control systems applied to the
input of the turbine. The control system will act on the rate of closing/opening of the gate
to ensure that the speed on the shaft does not suffer the high variability of the incoming
water. Governors are used in hydropower plants as speed regulating devices for frequency
control. In all the model describes a complete power plant including all necessary aspects
at the contrary of previous models which focus on only one aspect.

Moreover, we can also Simulink to develop a Model Predictive Control for hydroelectric
power plants. The work made some comparisons between the response of the plant and the
one of a PID controller. Results show improvement in the control. Furthermore, some other
researchers developed another robust model of hydroelectric power station in which two
reputed control methods were compared. These methods include the traditional Integral
controller (PI) and the Model Predictive Control. It was found that the Model Predictive
Control yield better results in terms of robustness as it was able to maintain its performance
both in SISO and MIMO cases. Other researches also dealt with hydropower modeling but
were more of case studies rather than generic model.

One researcher worked on modeling hydropower in RiverWare which is a river basin

modeling tool that provides flexibility to model a range of timestep events with multiple
solvers including simulation and optimization. The RiverWare provides four basic ways to
model hydropower namely: simple power method, peak base power method, plant power
method and finally unit generator power method. The Simple Power method,

models power, P, according to the relationship

where α is an empirical coefficient which captures the properties of water and the plant
efficiency, QT is turbine flow, and OH is operating head, given by headwater elevation
minus tail-water elevation. The Peak Base Power method determines the power and energy
generated by the entire plant based on the fractions of each timestep operated at peak flow
and base flow. The other two methods also determined the maximum operating point of
the hydropower plant by considering algorithm based on the best choice of QT and OH at
given condition
 MODEL OF HYDROPOWER PLANT
An extensive review of the modeling of hydropower plant is handled at this level with the
help of a model of hydraulic turbine designed by IEEE working group, under Matlab
simulation software and available on the Mathworks website. he model is first described
and further modified and simulated. The Hydraulic Turbine and Governor block
implements a nonlinear hydraulic turbine model, a PID governor system, and a servo motor
as described in figure 3.

Fig 3: Typical model of hydropower plant

The hydraulic turbine is modeled by the nonlinear system illustrated in figure 4

Fig 4: Nonlinear model of hydraulic turbine

The gate servomotor is modeled by a second-order system shown in figure 5.

 Fig 5: Model of Gate Servomotor

The summary of inputs/output to the hydraulic model is illustrated in figure 6.

Fig 6: Summarized model of hydraulic turbine under Matlab/Simulink

With consideration to all the components described previously in figures 3, 4 and 5, the
final model of figure 7 is built and simulated under Matlab/Simulink. The model consists
of a synchronous machine associated with the Hydraulic Turbine and Governor (HTG) and
Excitation System blocks. This model is extracted from Matlab 2012 examples and
modified to serve as an extensive review on the hydropower plant. The model is made of
a 250 MVA, 14 kV three-phase generator with a nominal speed of 112.5 rpm that is
connected to a 161 kV network through a Delta-Y transformer rated 300 MVA.

Fig 7: General model of Hydropower plant under Matlab software

The hydraulic turbine block described above is used in figure 7 to generate the mechanical
power that drives the synchronous generator. In addition, an excitation system block is
used to generate the excitation voltage that supplies the synchronous generator. Feedback
systems are used through PID controllers to regulate both the generated excitation voltage
as well as the mechanical power produced by the turbine. The output of the generator which
is initially 14 kV is fed to a step-up power transformer that feeds 161 kV on the
transmission line. Also an 11 MW load is added at the end with

a fault stimulating block. The following settings were adopted for the simulation purpose

- Machine Initialization: The type of machine selected is 'Bus type' and it is initialized as
'PV generator', which indicates that the initialization is performed with the machine
controlling the active power and its terminal voltage. The desired terminal voltage
parameter is set to 14000 and the active Power to 160 6
- The phasors of AB and BC machine voltages as well as the currents flowing out of phases
A and B are updated.
- The machine reactive power, mechanical power and field voltage requested to supply the
electrical power were also configured as follows: Q = 3.5 Mvar; Pmec = 160 MW ; field
voltage Ef = 1.3 pu.
- Hydraulic turbine: the initial mechanical power was set to 0.8 pu (160 MW).
- For the excitation System block, the initial terminal voltage and field voltage have been
set respectively to 1.0 and 1.3 pu.

RESULTS
To analyze the simulation results, three graphs have been plotted: the speed characteristic,
the output characteristic and the excitation voltage with respect to time. The reliability of
the hydropower plant can only be tested by the plant’s capacity to overcome fault quickly
and effectively. For this matter we introduced a short-circuit fault into the system in order
to analyze its response and conclude on the reliability. The fault, also known as three phase
to ground fault, was introduced at a time t=0.2s. A close look at the graphs provided in
figure 8, 9 and 10 respectively show that before the introduction of the fault, the system
was in steady state with nominal speed of 1 pu, an output voltage of amplitude 1 pu and an
excitation voltage of about 1.5 pu. The fault lasted for about 0.2s, that is from 0.2s to 0.4s
and during the fault there was a significant drop in the output voltage which became 0.4
pu in amplitude. In addition the excitation voltage increased highly to an average of 11.5
pu and the speed also increased slightly to 1.01 pu. The increase in the excitation voltage
is a very positive response of the system vis-a-vis the fault because it leads to an increase
in the flux value which further relates to the induced voltage by the famous equation E =
KØN

K is a constant related to the machine, Ø is the flux per pole and N is the speed.

From equation 6, it can be seen that the induced voltage is proportional to the flux and
therefore an increase in flux will have the effect of bringing the voltage back to its previous
value as it was highly reduced by the fault. For more increase in the induced voltage the
speed can also be increased and this is controlled by the governor from the opening and
closing of wicket gates.
However, the increase in speed did not yield a big change as it can be observed that the
increase was only about 0.01 pu due to the fact that it is dependent on the availability of
the flowing water. Furthermore, after the fault was removed at t=0.4s, the system quickly
regained stability with an output voltage of 1pu which is equivalent to the previous steady
state value. Automatically the excitation voltage drops and continues with oscillations in
order to maintain the output voltage constant. It can also be realized that the speed also
oscillate around and average value of 1 pu. The oscillations of the speed took longer time
to stabilize as compared to the ones of the voltage and this may be due to the rate of valve
opening/closing in the governor system.

Fig 8: Output Voltage (Generated voltage Va) of the Synchronous

Generator

Fig 9: Excitation voltage (Vf)

 Fig 10: Speed characteristics vs time

CONCLUSION
In summary, analytical models of hydropower generation were first reviewed. These
models were revealed inadequate for the proper modeling of the dynamic aspect of flowing
water, gate controlling and others. System simulation was further reviewed and a common
objective of this latter type of modeling was to look at the speed variation, the generated
power and its stability and dependency on input parameters such as opening and closing of
gate (which relate to the speed and amount of water flowing to the turbine), penstock,
turbine and generator modeling. The review showed that modern systems modeling adopt
a software simulation approach among which MATLAB/SIMULINK software and
Riverware can be cited. The last stage of the review therefore adopted an existing model
of hydropower plant in Matlab software, modified it and simulated it. Prominent results
were obtained in terms of speed and output voltage stability vis-à-vis network faults. A
three phase to ground fault was introduced at 0.2s, the system output voltage quickly
became stable after the removal of the fault at t=0.4s owing to the excitation voltage that
was maintained high because of the PID control systems.

However, in reality, the rise in excitation voltage is also limited to the capacity of the
existing source of supply. In the case of this simulation, the rise in excitation voltage was
about 10 pu which is actually very difficult to attain in real conditions. An additional rise
in speed can help to improve upon the problem but the control system established in the
simulation showed that the rise in speed was negligible. It is henceforth recommended that
the governor control systems should be improved upon with modern control techniques
such as fuzzy logic and this should be embedded in future models of hydropower plants .

REFERENCES
[1]https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.3390/en4091258Toolsfor Small Hydropower

Plant Resource Planning and Development: A Review of Technology and Application

[2] Munoz-Hernandez, G. A. and Jones, D. I. 2004, Modelling, Simulation and Control of

a Hydroelectric Pumped Storage Power Station, Control 2004, University of Bath, UK.

[3] Prillwitz, F., Al-Ali, S. E., Haase, T., Weber, H. and Saqe, L. 2007. Simulation Model
of the Hydropower plant Shkopeti. 6th EUROSIM Congress on Modelling and Simulation,
Ljubljana, Slovenia.

[4] Zagona, E. A. and Magee, T. M. 2013. Modelling Hydropower in RiverWare. In

Proc. of Waterpower 99: Hydro’s Future: Technology, Markets and Policy, pp 1- 10.
[5] IEEE Working Group on Prime Mover and Energy Supply Models for System
Dynamic Performance Studies. 1992. Hydraulic Turbine and Turbine Control Models for
Dynamic Studies. IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol.7, No.1, pp. 167-179.
[6] Mathworks. 2014. Synchronous Machines.
http://www.mathworks.com/examples/simpower/50- synchronous-machine.
[7] G., and Chauhan, D. S. 2011. Simulation and Modeling of Hydro Power Plant to
Study Time Response during Different Gate States. (IJAEST) INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL OF ADVANCED ENGINEERING SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGIES Vol.
No. 10, Issue No. 1, 042 - 047
 Small Hydro Power Plant Analysis and
Development
Anuradha Wijesinghe and Loi Lei Lai
City University London, State Grid Energy Research Institute, Beijing

INTRODUCTION
In terms of energy generation, the world is entering a new era. CO2 emissions must be
reduced, energy security must be increased, and sustainability must be improved. In the
foreground all of this, however, comes at a cost. The consumer will be the one to foot the
bill. As a result, energy generation must be financially sound.

The demand for oil and gas resources keeps increasing and there is an uncertainty over the
long term supply of oil and gas due to political conflicts. In addition to this, there is
increased resistance for nuclear new builds after the recent events in Fukushima.
Moreover, problems with waste management and decommissioning are still present and
costs keep escalating. Although coal is a cheaper alternative, emissions of greenhouse
gases are significantly high and it is not a sustainable solution for long term energy
generation. Therefore, global energy generation must make much greater use of new
renewable energy sources and focus more upon energy efficiency. However, most
renewable sources are not economically viable at present making them very unattractive
for developing countries.

Hydropower is a financially viable renewable energy source. For long-term energy

generation, hydro technology is also mature and reliable. Large-scale hydropower
generation is hampered by a lack of suitable sites, high capital costs, and long development
times, among other factors. Small Hydro Power (SHP) developments, which have
accelerated in recent years, have helped to alleviate these issues. In particular, there is a
great interest in run-of-the river type SHP plants. Economically viability of SHP units
largely depends on the selected location and its hydrological characteristics. System size
and design parameters must be carefully chosen to optimize economic operation of the
power plant. Generally, economical operation of run-of-the river power plants requires
operation in a wide flow range. Therefore the turbine and the generator units must have a
wide operating window with good efficiency throughout the entire range. In addition to
this, a satisfactory control mechanism is required to maintain the synchronism with the
grid at varying flow rates.

The optimal system size for cost-effective operation of a run-of-the-river hydro power
plant is determined in this paper. The power system is then designed using the best turbine
and generator technologies available. The power system model is created in
Matlab/Simulink® [5] with the appropriate control technique. The resulting power system
model is then put through its paces under various operational and fault scenarios.

PROJECT SITE CHARACTERISTICS :-

The chosen project location is in the Sri Lankan highlands' wet zone. This ensures a high
rate of rainfall, with an average rainfall of approximately 4400mm at the project site. The
natural elevation of the land is used to increase hydraulic head, and the power plant's net
head is estimated to be around 90 metres. The flow variation of the selected stream over
the course of the year is shown in the table below.

So the average monthly flow rate of the site is 2.64m3 /s and the maximum and minimum
observed flow rates were 7.09m3 /s and 0.25m3 /s respectively. The standard deviation of
the considered population was 1.51m3 /s. Based on the stream flow rates the Flow
Duration Curve (FDC) is generated. This shows the proportion of time during which the
flow rate of the stream has been greater than a certain threshold. Here the time percentage
is shown in x-axis and the flow threshold is given in y-axis.
 POWER AND ENERGY POTENTIAL :-
Hydro turbines are typically designed to operate at a specific operating point determined
by their hydraulic head, flow discharge, and rotational speed. Constant head is assumed
because the design is of the run-of-the-river type. The turbine would not be able to operate
in the entire flow range due to the high flow variation. As a result, different flow ranges
are chosen to calculate the project's power and energy generation potential. Because good
turbine designs can operate at one fifth of the design flow while maintaining efficiency,
each window's minimum flow rate is chosen to be one fifth of the maximum.

In addition to this, an environmental release of 0.5m3 /s is selected to support the

surrounding environment between the intake and the powerhouse. The minimum flow rate
for turbine operation is chosen to be 0.25m3 /s and after the exclusion of environmental
flow the minimum stream flow rate for energy generation is 0.75m3 /s. Overall system
efficiency of 72.2% is expected based on machinery available in the current markets. The
rated power outputs for different flow ranges are calculated from the following equation.

P=η*ρ*g*Hn*Q
The peak energy generation for each system size is obtained from the following equation.

Emax= Pmax*T

The expected energy generation during a year is generally a lot less than the maximum.
The expected annual energy generation is computed based on the yearly flow rate
variation. The estimated average energy generation per year for each system size is
calculated from the following equation.
The capacity factor of the power plant is an indication of the utilization of its total potential.
This is also known as the pant factor and it is the ratio of average expected energy
generation to the potential maximum energy generation.

Capacity factor is calculated for each flow range using the following equation.

The following table shows the calculated values for each flow window considered.

Projected energy generation versus system size can be plotted using the above calculations,
as shown below. The increase in energy production is less than the increase in system
capacity over 3000 kW.
The variation in capacity factor is shown below. Capacity factor peaks at 2750kW and falls
when the system capacity is further increased. This agrees with the finding above.

COST AND REVENUE :-

According to the most recent data, the capital cost of SHP in Europe ranges between 600
and 2000 euros per kWh. Because a dam is not required to retain a large body of water,
run-of-the-river power plants are expected to be in the lower half of the cost scale.
Furthermore, because development costs are lower in Sri Lanka than in Europe, the
expected cost is estimated to be around 1000€/kWh.

At current exchange rates, this equates to about 155,000 LKR per kWh (May 2011). In
comparison to conventional power plants, hydro power plants require almost no
maintenance. As a result, recurring costs are expected to be around 5% of the capital
investment. The following figure shows the variation of revenue vs. capital expenditure.
The optimum system size, as shown in the diagram above, is around 3000kW. Due to the
small increase in revenue, additional capacity investments are not justified. As a result,
3000kW is the ideal system size for the chosen project location. This equates to a system
power rating of 4167kVA at an estimated system efficiency of 72.2 percent.

POWER SYSTEM DESIGN :-

The pelton turbine with six nozzles was chosen for the turbine design because of its high
efficiency over a wide flow range. The operating range is widened and the rotational speed
is increased when the nozzle number is high. The following are the turbine design
parameters:

Water jet velocity hitting the turbine blades:

The final jet velocity relative to the ground should be zero if all of the kinetic energy of
the water jet is transferred to the turbine. The optimum design speed of the turbine runner
is half of the water jet velocity, according to the laws of conservation of momentum. The
optimum turbine speed in a real-world situation is about 0.48 times the water jet velocity.
Once the jet speed is known the water jet diameter can be computed from the following
equation.

For efficient operation turbine runner diameter should be at least 10 times the jet velocity.
Therefore the turbine runner diameter, D = 10x0.1545 = 1.545m

The optimum number of turbine buckets,

Z = D / (2.ds) + 15 = 0.5x10 +15 = 20

As a rule of thumb the bucket diameter is calculated from: B = 3.3 x

ds = 3.3 × 0.1545 = 0.51m.

Turbine rotational speed u = r. ω = 20.16 / 0.7725 = 26.10 rads-1

Turbine speed is controlled by the use

of a spear valve and deflector
mechanism built within the
injector nozzles. The needle
adjustment alone is sufficient to keep
the rotor speed constant for small load
variations. The deflector, on the other
hand, is used to protect the
system by diverting the water jet away
from the turbine during large and rapid load rejections. In addition, the deflector shields
the water jet from the runner's water spray.

The needle adjustment alone is sufficient to keep the rotor speed constant for small load
variations. The deflector, on the other hand, is used to protect the system by diverting the
water jet away from the turbine during large and rapid load rejections. In addition, the
deflector shields the water jet from the runner's water spray.

At power ratings above 1MW, the synchronous generator [7] is chosen because it
is more efficient and less expensive than induction generators. Due to the low rotational
speed of the turbine, synchronism requires a large number of poles. As a result, the salient
pole construction is chosen. The static DC excitation system is used to generate
field voltage for cost and efficiency reasons. The number of poles required for
synchronous generation is,

The generation voltage is set to 400V because it is common among equipment

manufacturers. To convert the generation voltage to the distribution grid voltage of 33kV,
a three phase Y-Y transformer is used.

SYSTEM MODELLING :-
The power system model is created using the design specification that was created earlier.
The implementation is done with the SimPowerSystems development toolbox in the
Matlab/Simulink® development environment. The developed model is a closed loop
feedback controlled model that keeps the rotational speed synchronized.

The spear valve and the deflector mechanism both control the rotor speed of the turbine,
and both of these mechanisms are combined into the turbine governor model.

A voltage regulator mechanism is also included in the generator excitation system, which
provides close loop field voltage control based on the Vq and Vd components of the stator
terminal voltage. This allows the generator to maintain synchronism with the grid by
maintaining its terminal voltage over a wide operating range.
A 5kW load is placed on the low voltage side of the transformer to model in-house power
consumption, and a 3MW load and a three phase voltage source is placed to act for the
external distribution grid, in addition to the general power system model. To simulate
faults, a three-phase fault block is installed at the transformer output.

POWER SYSTEM SIMULATION :-

Under system faults, the modeled power system is simulated for step changes in power.
SimPowerSystems powerGUI interface is used to perform system initialization first. This
calculates the power system's load flow for a given initial reference power.

The simulation begins with a step reduction in reference power. System is initialized with
a power output of 0.937pu and the demand is reduced by 25% to

0.703pu after 1s from the start.

After 3.5 seconds, the system response has stabilized. The controller keeps the rotor speed
very close to the synchronous speed, resulting in excellent overall performance.

The system is then simulated for a 10-cycle three-phase to ground fault. As before, the
initial power output is 0.937pu, and the fault is introduced 1 second after the simulation
begins and cleared 1.2 seconds later.

During and immediately after the fault removal, grid synchronization is greatly impacted.
Within 2 seconds of the fault being cleared, the system was able to regain stability and re-
synchronize with the grid. During this time, there is a lot of variation in load angle.
Therefore the system reaction for the three-phase faults lasting less than 10 cycles is
considered satisfactory.

The system is now re-simulated with increased fault duration for the same three-phase
fault. The fault duration has been increased to 15 cycles, and the other simulation
parameters have remained unchanged. As can be seen below, due to the longer fault
duration, the system loses stability and is unable to regain it.

Based on the worst case fault analysis the system fault levels are calculated to be 105kA
and 1250kA at either side of the step up transformer.
 Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
The project is eligible for Certified Emission Reductions (CER) from the Kyoto CDM
mechanism [8] because it helps to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, the
project must be proven to be an additionality in order to qualify for the CDM. As a result,
the emissions reductions would not have occurred if the CDM mechanism had not been in
place. The number of CERs earned is equal to the number of tonnes of CO2 saved.

Therefore once qualified the project can receive estimated 6270 carbon credits from the
CDM mechanism. At a current rate of approximately €15.00, this would generate
significant revenue.

This is approximately 10% of the normal project revenue and it would help to attract
investors and make the project a reality.

CONCLUSION
SHP is a renewable, environmentally friendly, and economically viable energy source. It
is a viable solution to the global energy crisis. In recent years, run-of-the-river SHP plants
have attracted a lot of attention.

The optimum system size for economic operation at the chosen project site is 3000kW.
In the Matlab/Simulink® environment, the power system is designed and modeled. For
step changes in reference power, the simulations performed well. After a 10-cycle three-
phase fault, the system was able to stabilize. The system, however, collapsed and did
not recover when the fault duration increased to 15 cycles.

The project is eligible for the CDM mechanism and will receive carbon credits. At current
rates, the additional revenue from CERs equates to 10% of the revenue generated from
normal operations, which will significantly improve the project's finances.
 REFERENCES
[1]. British Hydropower Association, www.british-hydro.org visited on 1 May 2011

[2]. Scientific and technological reference energy technology indicators, Working

Document, European Small Hydropower Association, 2010.

[3]. Celso Penche, Layman’s Guidebook on how to develop a small hydro site, Handbook,
European Commission, 1998.

[4]. Small Hydro Power Handbook, http://www.smallhydropower.com/manual3.htm

， visited on 1 May 2011. [5]. Matlab/Simulink SimPowerSystems, Product

Documentation, www.mathworks.com/help visited on 1 May 2011

[6]. Zoeb Husain, Zulkirfly Abdullah, Zainal Alimuddin, Basic Fluid Mechanics and
Hydraulic Mechanics, BS Publications, 2008.

[7]. Tze-Fun Chan, (2003), Synchronous Machines, in Encyclopedia of Life Support

Systems (EOLSS), Eolss Publishers, Oxford UK, 2003.

[8]. UNFCCC Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Guidance and

Documentation [Online], http://cdm.unfccc.int/ visited on 1 May 2011.

Environmentally Enhanced Turbines for
Hydropower Plants: Current Technology and
Future Perspective
Emanuele Quaranta , Juan I. Pérez-Díaz, Pedro Romero–Gomez and Alberto Pistocchi

European Commission Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy, Department of

Hydraulic, Energy and Environmental Engineering, Universidad Politécnica de

Madrid, Madrid, Spain, Andritz Hydro, Linz, Austria

Introduction
Hydropower, accounting for 1,308 GW of installed power (International
Hydropower Association (IHA), 2020), is the main renewable energy source. It
provides renewable energy, flexibility of the electric grid and ancillary services,
water storage and flood control (Shuai et al., 2021). On the other side, the
alteration of aquatic ecosystems is perceived as the main cause of
hydropowerrelated impacts, with risks imposed on migrating fish and water
quality. For example, the turbine may affect water quality (oil pollution and
oxygen content) and disrupt the natural pathways for fish migration. (Nguyen
et al., 2018; Geist, 2021). Therefore, it is essential to find the optimal trade-off
between benefits and impacts, and to implement those hydropower technologies
with limited conflict

With the aim of reducing these impacts, environmentally enhanced turbines

(EETs) have gained attention in the past 2 decades to reduce fish mortality.
EETs are herein classified into fish friendly turbines, FFTs (although this term
does not imply these facilities would have beneficial effects on fish), and
ecological turbines, ETs, in particular self-aerating turbines and self-lubricated
turbines. In addition to the improvement of the hydropower unit design to
facilitate fish passage and survival, another increasingly important strategy
consists of interpreting fish-monitoring data for steering turbine operations in
order to achieve a specific environmental goal, namely, the reduction of overall
risks of mortal injury of fish through the hydropower station. The work of
KlopriesElena- Maria and Schüttrumpf (2020) implemented a procedure for
evaluating risks of mortal injury of European eels through turbines based on
flow simulation and fish trajectory modeling. This is better known as “fish
friendly operations and management.” This strategy has been pursued in
observance to the migratory behavior of fishes and can be implemented as part
of upgrading actions

Environmentally Enhanced Turbines: FFT Type

The impacts of traditional turbines on fish migration have been widely studied
in literature, and strictly depend on turbine type (Pracheil et al., 2016). Some
examples are: Ferguson et al. (2008) for Francis and Kaplan turbines, Fu et al.
(2016) for Francis turbines and Deng et al. (2007) for Kaplan turbines. Pelton
turbines are not generally considered, due to their intrinsically high-mortality
behavior. Amaral et al. (2011), Cada et al. (1997) and Cook et al.
(2003) defined some criteria to design FFTs.

The main damage mechanisms that fish may undergo while passing through a
turbine are: mechanical injury (strike, grinding), decreased pressure and sudden
pressure decrease, shear stresses and turbulence, and cavitation, which can
cause external and internal injury (Mueller et al., 2020). The pressure-related
effects take precedence when a greater biodiversity is considered, since most
migratory fish are prone to mortality due to barotrauma caused by the rapid
decompression affecting the size of the swimming bladder almost instantly.
Rapid change in barometric pressure, or barotrauma, is a potential cause of
injury and mortality for juvenile salmonids passing through hydro turbines
(Brown et al., 2012; Richmond et al., 2014

prioritized the mitigation of collision-related effects. Furthermore, mechanical

injuries are considered dominant and the main cause of fish mortality passing
through a turbine (Amaral et al., 2011). Mechanical injury depends on fish
dimensions, flow velocity and direction, and on turbine characteristics.
However, Deng et al. (2007) found that predictions from stochastic models are
generally closer to experimental data than predictions from the blade strike
model, because the stochastic models consider the aspects of fish approaching
to the leading edges of turbine runner blades.

In order to emphasize the novel strategies for fish protection via the redesign of
turbines, a review work (Hogan et al., 2014) about the first generation of FFTs
thoroughly described the conceptual development and implementation of two
relevant technologies designed for better fish passage conditions, namely the
Minimum Gap Runner (MGR) and the Alden turbine Table 1 shows a
comparison on the performances and dimensions. The Alden and MGR turbines
can be currently used between 10 and 40 m head, and for flow rates above 17
m3/s, but it is expected that they will be able to work up to 50 m head up to 325
m3/s (Nielson et al., 2015; Twaróg, 2015.

The Alden turbine is an evolution of the Francis turbine, with three blades,
wrapped around the shaft, to reduce fish injury. The Alden turbine was initially
conceptualized and studied using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD)
simulations and experimental tests at a pilot scale in the Alden research
laboratory (EPRI and DOE, 2011). The obtained results showed a maximum
hydraulic efficiency of 93.6% and fish passage survival rates greater than 98%
for fish less than 20 cm long (Timothy et al., 2014). The current Alden turbine
design rotates at a slower speed than conventional turbines in the same context.
Table 1 shows a comparison between an Alden turbine and a 13-blade Francis
turbine that rotates at 190 rpm. In a similar context, a five-blade Kaplan- Bulb
turbine that rotates at 267.9 rpm could be used. The cost of the electro-
mechanical equipment of the Alden turbine costs 39% more than the analogous
cost of a Francis turbine, and 35% more than a MGR Kaplan-Bulb unit.
Nevertheless, the global cost of a power plant equipped with the Alden turbine
is lower than the cost of a Francis turbine hydropower plant (Dixon and Hogan,
2015), because the following cost reduction has to be considered: the
powerhouse excavation is reduced by about 17% than a comparable Kaplan-
Bulb turbine, and overall civil works are reduced by approximately 12% with
respect to those of a comparable Kaplan-Bulb turbine; fishways for downstream
migrating fish may no longer be needed if the passage survival through the
turbine is high, making available more flows for generation; finally, O&M and
capital costs of downstream fish bypass systems are reduced (Nielson et al.,
2015). In order to further improve the performance, the variable rotational speed
allows to maintain the blades always in their maximum opening position
reducing the strike probability with fish and avoiding dangerous gaps between
the blades and other parts of the machine. The DIVE turbine is an example of
this application.

The Minimum Gap Runner turbine (MGR) is the optimization of the Kaplan-
Bulb turbine. The gaps between the adjustable runner blade and the hub, and the
gaps between the blades and the discharge ring, are minimized, reducing fish
injury and mortality, and improving turbine efficiency (Timothy et al., 2014).
The first field test of the MGR was done in Oregon at the Bonneville dam. The
injury rate was 1.5%, smaller that the injury rate of 2.5% occurring at the
adjacent Kaplan-Bulb turbine. The design and manufacture of the MGR is very
similar to a standard Kaplan-Bulb turbine. Therefore, both turbines exhibit the
same operating range in terms power output, flow capacity and hydraulic head,
and the same dimensions. However, the higher efficiency and survival rate of a
MGR turbine is compensated by a higher cost (Nielson et al., 2015The direct
survival testing and validation of the design strategies are currently taking place
(early 2021) with deployments of live and sensor fish samples at equivalent
operating points between the two units. One of the 10 Kaplan-Bulb turbines of
Wanapum Dam was replaced in 2005 with a new MGR Kaplan-Bulb turbine
(Sale et al., 2006). After the first 3,000 h of operation, the turbine generation
increased by 14%, and a fish survival rate of 97% was achieved. Based on these
results, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) of the United
States approved the replacement of the remaining 9 KaplanBulb turbines with
MGR turbines. The upgrade work finished in March 2020.

Environmentally Enhanced Turbines: ET Type, Aeration and Lubrication

The water of many reservoirs at the lower reaches is often oxygen deficient and
the passage of this water causes damage to the ecosystems downstream (Pleizier
et al., 2020). Hydropower plants that generally suffer of oxygen deficit exhibit
the following characteristics: reservoir depth greater than 15 m, installed power
higher than 10 MW, reservoir volume greater than 61 Mm 3, densimetric Froude
number below 7, and a retention time greater than 10 days (EPRI, 1990). In
order to minimize oxygen deficit problems, low pressure regions below the
runner can be utilized to draw atmospheric air into the turbine during operation.
Turbines where this system is implemented are called auto-venting turbines
(AVT). AVTs allow distributed, central and peripheral aeration depending on
the customer’s requirements. This sustainable technology maximizes bubble
distribution in draft tube and tailrace while minimizing the impact on the
turbine. Air injection is also an emerging technology for the flow control in the
draft tube at offdesign conditions (Kougias et al., 2019). The aeration solution
can be implemented both for Francis and for Kaplan and Pelton turbines. In
March and Jacobson (2015) a review was presented, along with a database,
showing that, in United States, the aerated turbines were 153 Francis turbines,
11 Deriaz turbines, 10 Bulb-Propeller and 4 Kaplan turbines. Foust and Coulson
(2011) described peripheral aeration system for a Kaplan turbine, where the
bottom of the discharge ring was located up to 1.8 m below the elevation, due
to cavitation constraints. The peripheral aeration system provided up to 3 mg/l
of dissolved oxygen uptake, satisfying the water quality requirements at the
plant. Dorena Lake Plant is equipped with a 4.4 MW vertical Kaplan turbine
and a 1.2 MW horizontal Francis turbine, both turbines with peripheral aeration
in the draft tubes, and additional diffusers in the tailrace (Douglas and Tong,
2012). March (2011) reported an efficiency increase of 2%/1% without/with
aeration with an aerating turbine with peripheral aeration, and of 3.8%/1%
without/with aeration with an aerating turbine with distributed aeration, with
respect to the original turbine. In another project, March (2011) reported the
same efficiency with a new aerating turbine with central aeration, and a capacity
increase of 21%/11% without/with aeration. Both March and Fisher (1999) and
March (2011) showed some efficiency curves from which it is possible to assess
the efficiency difference at part load with respect to the original turbine for
different aerating turbine technologies. With peripheral aeration, the efficiency
at part load increased by 5% with respect to the original turbine which had no
aeration system. McIntosh et al. (2010) presented the replacement of a Francis
turbine with central aeration, showing that the plant efficiency improved by
3.7%, the power output increase by 14%, and over 1.5 mg/l of dissolved oxygen
could be provided. The aeration inside the casing of Pelton turbines is also very
important in order to minimize oxygen deficit downstream, to minimize the
negative effects at the tail race, e.g., corrosion and transport capacity (Kramer
et al., 2017), especially when they have to be operated with a backpressure. It is
worth noting the installation of Bieudron, the world’s largest Pelton turbines,
with net head of 1,869 m and 25 m3/s of flow. At full load, with a maximum
turbine discharge of 25 m3/s, the natural aeration system delivers 6 m3/s of air
to the turbine casing (Keck et al., 2000). A case study worth mentioning on a
Pelton turbine working in pressurized conditions is that developed at the
Kopswerk II pumped storage hydropower plant in Austria, with a 180 MW
Pelton turbine and a gross head ranging from 737 to 804 m. The pump power is
155 MW. Based on the lower reservoir water level, the Pelton turbine is below
the water level of the lower reservoir of 1–16 m. When the vertical distance
between the Pelton runner and the water level is 16 m, the casing was
pressurized at 3 bar, and 1 bar when the distance is 1 m Hirtenlehner (2008).

Another topic to be considered to make turbines more environmentally

acceptable is the lubrication. Adjustable blade runner hubs are typically filled
with pressurized oil. This oil lubricates runner blade trunnion bearing and
sliding parts of the operating mechanism in the hub. However, as explained by
St. Germain (2018), oil leakage from hydraulic turbines does not only have a
negative impact on the environment, but also causes some operational and
maintenance problems. For both Kaplan-Bulb and Francis turbines (but
especially for the former), there is thus a challenge related to the oil leakage
from the turbine bearings and seals. Many of these turbines were designed,
installed and commissioned by using pressurized oil to lubricate the turbine
bearings. To date, several Kaplan-Bulb and Francis turbines have been
upgraded so as to make them work free from oil (Värlind, 2002; Falkenhem et
al., 2011; Auger and Ren, 2017), and new materials and lubricants are being
developed (Quaranta and Davies, 2021). Ingram and Ray (2010) stated that
water-lubricated guide bearings contribute to increase the overall plant
efficiency by reducing friction losses by about 50% and that their maintenance
is limited in comparison to oil- lubricated ones. Oil leakage can be an issue in
hydropower plants equipped with Pelton turbines as well. However, the number
of cases reported in the literature is very limited Oil-free hubs are a widely
installed technology in Europe, particularly in the Scandinavian countries.

CONCLUSION
Environmentally enhanced turbines are continuously improving to yield greater
improvements in fish survival and water quality, and to accommodate a larger
biodiversity of fish present in the migratory corridor. However, the existing FFTs are
limited to the low head applications, and the associated mortality risk is not totally
reduced to zero, so that fish passages for the downstream migration remain essential.
Self-aerating turbines allow to improve water quality, but their internal fluid dynamic
behavior complicates due to the multiphase flow, while novel materials and lubricant
are being developed to minimize the use of oil-based lubricant.

Therefore, further efforts should be spent in this context. The more the turbine industry
understands the environmental goals set by environmental agencies,
the more effective the turbine design strategies at early stages of

development will be. The greater the willingness of environmental agencies and
operators to prioritize fish-related improvements, the greater the improvement will be.
While the scientific research in the field of environmentally enhanced turbines has
contributed considerably to the development of the next generation of Kaplan-type
turbines to minimize turbine-passage mortality, a considerable effort must be made for
bringing Francis-type machines at the same level of development. Furthermore, valves
may indirectly influence fish mortality. For instance, valves can set the flows at part
load conditions which give rise to greater likelihood of collision-related injuries, but at
the same time reduce the likelihood of barotrauma (pressurerelated injury). Here the
influence comes from the flows deriving from the valve operation but not from the
structure itself. To the best of our knowledge, there is noo field evidence of effect of
penstock/valve flows on fish mortality and more studies should be performed.

Additional research questions that should be addressed are detailed performance and
fluid dynamic analyses. Research should also be carried out to improve numerical
models for predicting the decrease in turbine efficiency due to fluid dynamic effects in
the draft tube (e.g., vortex rope) under nonaerating and aerating conditions, and for
predicting gas transfer and dissolved oxygen. Tools to assess the biological
performance of turbines are instead already in place. More cost-effective and low
maintenance methods to measure dissolved oxygen in reservoirs and reservoir releases
should be studied.
A new generation of small hydro and pumped-
hydro power plants: Advances and
future challenges
G. Ardizzon, G. Cavazzini , G. Pavesi

Department of Industrial Engineering – University of Padova, Italy

Introduction
In the last decades, world electrical energy consumption has significantly increased with
a share that reached 17.7% in 2010 and is predicted to double by 2025. The increasing
concern about environmental aspects has favored a corresponding rapid growth of the
deployment of renewable energy sources aimed at the progressive reduction of fossil fuel
exploitation and dependence. In such context, hydropower is undoubtedly one of the most
mature technologies with an electricity production of about 3500 TWh in 2010 (16.3% of
the world0 s electricity), greater than that of the other renewable sources combined (3.6%),
but much smaller than that of the fossil fuel plants (67.2%).

Besides the positive effects on climate mitigation, hydropower also presents other
considerable advantages: it promotes price stability because, unlike fuel and natural gas,
it is not subject to market fluctuations; it reduces environment vulnerability to floods; it
contributes to fresh water storage for drinking and irrigation exploitations; it makes a
significant contribution to development by bringing electricity, roads, industry and
commerce to communities which can benefit future generations as hydropower projects
are long-term investments with an average life span of 50–100 years.

However, eliminating large hydropower projects from renewable energy programs will
not reduce the power demand, which will be partially satisfied by thermal plants, thereby
increasing the global level of greenhouse gas emissions. For instance, it was demonstrated
that two pumped-hydro energy storage units combined with a thermal generation unit
make it possible to reduce the excess emissions of the thermal unit by 60%.

At present, the electricity grid is highly centralized with a complex system of energy
production-transmission characterized by a long distance between power plants and end-
users and by limited use of storage, the ose installed capacity was about 127.9 GW in 2010
(2.5% of the world’s installed capacity) [9]. To ensure the security of the power system, a
continuous balance between demand and supply should be guaranteed and this actually
limits penetration in the grid of intermittent renewable energy sources, whose energy
production is fluctuating, unpredictable, and delocalized. For example, as regards the
potential wind energy penetration in the electricity grid, an instantaneous increase up to
20% of the total energy production was estimated to be feasible without technical hitches
for the grid stability.
 Pumped Hydro Energy Storage Plants

A hydro pumped energy storage plant converts grid interconnected electricity to hydraulic
potential energy (so-called “charging”), by pumping the water from a lower reservoir to
an upper one during the off-peak periods, and then converting it back during the peak
periods (“discharging”) by exploiting the available hydraulic potential energy between the
reservoirs like a conventional hydropower plant. Pumped energy storage plants are
generally subdivided into “closed-loop” (or “off-stream”) plants when the discharging
phase relies entirely on the water previously pumped to the upper reservoir, and pump
back” ones, when the discharging phase relies on a combination of pumped water and
natural inflow.

The first PHES plants, owned by state utilities, were built to supply energy during the peak
periods, allowing the base-load power plants to operate at high efficiency, and to provide
balancing, frequency stability and black starts.

Variable Speed Technology

In recent years, after the liberalization of the market, the increasing interest in renewable
energy sources has again turned public attention towards the PHES as a mature and large
scale energy storage technology to support green energy production and to provide grid
stability. In such a context, several new PHES have been planned in Europe for a total
power capacity of 7426 MW and some of them will adopt the variablespeed reversible
pump-turbines breakthrough technology, whose Fig. 3. Closed-loop (a) and pump-back
(b) pumped energy storage plants. G. Ardizzon et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Reviews 31 (2014) 746–761 749 peculiarity is to improve the pump-turbine efficiency
over a wider range of operating conditions and to improve the capability in grid regulation
of the PHES

From an electrical point of view, the possibility of speed variation is obtained by means
of a power converter employing power electronic to decouple motor/generator from the
grid in terms of reactive power, voltage and frequency, that are properly set independently
on the different sides (power-grid and motor/generator).

Optimal operating strategies for pumped hydro energy storage

plants
In a liberalized electricity market, pumped hydro energy storage represents a merchant
unit whose revenue derives not only from the electricity trading in the day-ahead market
but also from regulation services selling in the ancillary reserve markets. As regards
electricity trading, the profit of the PHES is strictly connected with selling hydropower-
generated electricity at a high market clearing price (MPC) in the generation mode and
with purchasing it at a low MPC in the pumping mode. However, since the conversion
process (electricity–mechanical energy–electricity) is unavoidably characterized by
energy losses, to make revenue.

Small Hydro Power

Hydropower on a small scale has not an international agreed definition and its upper limit
can vary between 2.5 and 30 MW, even though the most widely accepted value is 10 MW.
Being among the energy storage technologies currently available on a small scale, it is
recognized as one of the most costeffective because of its predictable energy
characteristics, its long term reliability and its reduced environmental effects [56,57].
Unlike large scale hydropower, whose development is associated with the building of large
dams, small hydro power plants is generally “run-of-river”, with a weir crossing the river
and little or no water stored. Turbo turbines are similar to Pelton turbines, but are
characterized by a different blade shape and by a different relative dispositions between
runner and penstocks.

Reaction turbines can be divided in Francis and axial turbines. Francis turbines, patented
by James Bickens Francis at the end of the nineteenth century, are mixed-flow reaction
turbines composed by spiral case, distributor, runner and draft tube.

The spiral case receives the flow and distributes it peripherally to the distributor,
represented by mobile guide vanes whose aim is to control the flow rate entering into the
runner and to define the flow angle at the runner inlet. The axial flow reaction turbines
include Kaplan and propeller turbines and are generally composed by guide vanes, a
runner and a draft tube. Once it entered the turbine, the water received a swirl component
by the guide vanes, that is almost completely absorbed by the runner, thus determining the
energy exchange. The water is often directed in the draft tube with a little residual angular
momentum to prevent boundary layer detachments. Propeller turbines are often
characterized by adjustable guide vanes to vary the flow rate, whereas in Kaplan turbines
even the runner blade can be adjusted.

Optimal Sizing
Most of the rare high-head installation sites have been already exploited, the great potential
of small hydro power is represented by low-head sites, whose economical attractiveness
is strictly connected with an optimal design of the electro-mechanical equipment, mainly
represented by turbine and generator. The capacity sizing of a small hydropower plant is
strictly connected with flow availability and is based on the analysis of the flow duration
curve. The flow duration curve is a cumulative distribution of the stream flow rate of a
site on an annual basis and shows the percentage of time that the site water flow equals or
exceeds a specific value. The available flow rate range of the site is included between the
maximum flow rate flowing for at least 1 day per year (Qmax) and the minimum flow rate
flowing into the site.
This flow rate cannot be fully exploited, since it is established by law that a reserved flow
(RF), a sort of environmental flow, should be released downstream to keep the ecosystem
in the conditions

Due to the last advances in hydro technology, one important aspect to consider in the
analysis of the optimal design in small hydro applications should be the use of the variable
speed technology in installation sites characterized by significant head and/or flow rate
variations. The possible application of this technology could significantly increase the
plant profitability by increasing the hours of production, and its implementation in the
optimization algorithm will certainly represent a significant advance in the optimal sizing
of a small hydro power plant.

CFD as a tool for improving hydraulic turbine and pumpturbine

performance
The peculiarity of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is its capacity to calculate the
flow field around an arbitrary obstacle or through a channel of an arbitrary shape via the
numerical solution of the equations that describe the flow development (Navier– Stokes
equations, energy equation, global and partial continuity equations, etc.).

The peculiarity of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is its capacity to calculate the
flow field around an arbitrary obstacle or through a channel of an arbitrary shape via the
numerical solution of the equations that describe the flow development (Navier– Stokes
equations, energy equation, global and partial continuity equations, etc.).

In recent years, significant developments in CFD testified by the accurate results of the
numerical analysis on Francis and Kaplan turbines, and paved the way for the exploitation
of CFD even to the more complex Pelton turbines. Unlike the Francis and Kaplan turbines,
whose design procedures are well-consolidated also thanks to CFD, Pelton turbines are
still characterized by semi-empirical design criteria because of the difficulty in
investigating (both experimentally and numerically) the complex fluid-dynamical
interaction between the water jet and the rotating buckets, which greatly affects turbine
performance. With the last improvements in computational accuracy and efficiency, the
experimental investigations were successfully combined with numerical analyses to gain
new insights in such complex phenomena.

Conclusion
The increasing need for a better and wider exploitation of the hydropower source has also
turned the attention of the research community towards the development of more or less
complex algorithms for an optimal preliminary sizing of the plant capacity, on the basis
of economic, technical or techno-economic parameters

Hydropower has all the features needed for being a sustainable, secure and competitive
energy and for supporting a significant penetration of other important renewable energy
sources, such as wind and photovoltaic. However, even though its future not only in
Europe but all around the world could be bright, there is a lot to do to make the technology
more efficient, reduce its environmental impact, modernize old plants, integrate smaller
plants into the grid and optimize sizing and management. This paper gives a picture of the
issues and challenges facing the hydro technology sector and assesses the priorities for
future research and development with a particular focus on pumped-hydro energy storage
plants and small hydro power plants.
 The role of hydroelectric power and contribution of
small hydropower plants for sustainable development in
Turkey
Bahtiyar Dursun, Cihan Gokcol

Department of Electricity and Energy, Pinarhisar Vocational School, Kirklareli University, 39050, Pinarhisar / Kirklareli,
Turkey
Department of Automation Technologies, Luleburgaz Vocational School, Kirklareli University, 39050, Luleburgaz/
Kirklareli, Turkey

Introduction
Turkey is a rapidly growing country in terms of its economy and population, and as a result,
it has a big and growing energy demand. Moreover, Turkey’s strategic positioning makes
it a natural bridge between the energy-rich Middle East and Central Asian regions. Energy
plays a vital role in facilitating socio-economic development and furthering the standard
of living and hence this increasing demand needs to be met at all costs.

Despite having numerous energy sources, Turkey is a major energy importer. Turkey has
a lot of potential for self-sufficiency in terms of energy, which might be used to eliminate
this energy dependency. Furthermore, Turkey is a country with an abundance of renewable
energy sources, and it can effectively meet all of its energy needs using its own indigenous
energy sources. The main indigenous energy resources of Turkey are lignite, hydro and
biomass. Table 1 shows Turkey’s present and future energy consumption (taken from
Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey) with respect to various resources
With growing energy demand it becomes imperative to employ indigenous energy sources
more instead of the non abundant fossil sources to mitigate the energy dependence on
foreign countries. This provides a significant incentive to investigate the possibilities of
hydropower as a renewable energy source, which has been underutilized thus far. From
now on, it should be carefully considered as a key contributor to meeting a significant
amount of all energy demand.

Turkey's total hydropower potential is 433 TWh, accounting for about 1% of the world's
total hydropower potential and 13.75 percent of Europe's total hydropower potential. Only
130 TWh of Turkey's overall hydropower potential is commercially viable. The
commissioning of new hydropower units, which are now under construction, will use 43
percent of the country's economically exploitable capacity. Hydropower energy is
currently an essential energy source for Turkey because of its beneficial properties, such
as being renewable, clean, and environmentally friendly, as well as being a cheap and home
energy source.

Hydropower remains the most efficient way to generate electricity. Modern hydro turbines
can convert up to 90% of available energy into electricity, but the finest fossil fuel plant
can only achieve about 50% efficiency. Furthermore, hydropower is an excellent source of
electricity generation all over the world and is expected to continue to rise, particularly in
developing nations. While huge dams have become a considerably riskier venture, minor
hydro projects around the world still have a lot of untapped potential.

Turkey’s water resources and its potential

Turkey is not, contrary to popular belief, a country with abundant water resources. At the
start of the millennium, Turkey's gross water potential per capita was 3000 m3. The yearly
water potential per capita is at 1652 m3. Turkey appears to be "water-rich" in the region
when compared to countries like Israel, Jordan, and Yemen, which have a 150-400 m3
/year per capita water potential. Being a "water-rich" country, on the other hand,
necessitates a water potential per capita of greater than 10,000 m3 per year. As a result,
Turkey cannot be classified as a "water-rich" country. The gross water potential per capita
values of Turkey, both at present and in the future paint an alarming picture, indicating
possibilities of droughts in some regions.

The average annual precipitation in Turkey is 643 millimeters, but the distribution is fairly
unequal. This average yearly precipitation equates to 501 km3 (501 billion m3 (bcm)) of
water. However, from an economic point of view, the country's average exploitable water
potential is 112 km3 per year. Table 2 shows Turkey's water potential.

Although Turkey has an adequate amount of water in general, it is not always in the right
place at the right time to meet present and anticipated needs. Turkey is divided into 25
drainage basins in regard to the concept of hydrology, as given in Table 3.
The annual average flows of Turkey’s are approximately 186 km3 . The Euphrates and
Tigris, among all basins, is the largest with about 185,000 km2 of land area. Most of
country’s water potential lies in the southeast region
(Euphrates and Tigris basin) with 28.5% followed by Black Sea region with 13.3%,
Mediterranean region with 10.8%, Marmara region with 4.5% and others.

The rivers in general have irregular regimes, and natural flows cannot be taken directly as
usable resources. The average annual precipitation, evaporation and surface runoff greatly
vary geographically. On the other hand, Turkey has 665,000 ha of inland waters, excluding
rivers and small streams. There are 200 natural lakes, with a total area of 500,000 ha, and
775 dam lakes and ponds with a total surface area of 165,000 ha. Given the wide variance
in runoff between seasons, years, and regions, it is critical that Turkey's major rivers have
water-storage facilities to ensure that water is available when it is needed. As a result, the
installation of water-storage facilities has traditionally been accorded first priority.

Role of hydroelectric power (generated from water resources) in

Turkey for sustainable development
The generation of electrical power using hydropower projects is hugely beneficial in the
context of Turkey. They are labor-intensive during construction and hence provide long
term employment opportunities. Additionally, it causes less environmental damage than
fossil fuels as no harmful gas emissions accompany the generation process.

In 2007 almost 18% of total annual electricity production in Turkey, which is equal to
almost 35TWh/yr (meaning 27% of theoretically economical hydropower potential which
is estimated to be 130 TWh/yr), was provided by water resources. But 27% is too little
compared to the corresponding ratios of European countries which are not less than 60%;
for example Sweden, Norway and France have 98.8%, 82.8% and 87.8%, respectively.
This means that Turkey allows its water resources to flow freely without generating
electricity. In fact if it could efficiently exploit its remaining hydropower potential with an
amount of about 90 TWh/yr, while its total electricity consumption is presently about 190
TWh/yr, Turkey would be able to decrease its energy dependence on foreign countries
considerably.

The key takeaway is that Turkey should diversify energy supplies and avoid dependency
on a single source or country in the framework of Turkish energy policy.

General characteristics of hydroelectric power

Hydroelectric power has a plethora of benefits. Hydro turbines convert water pressure into
mechanical shaft power which can be used to drive an electricity generator or other
machinery. The power available is proportional to the product of pressure head and water
discharge. Hydropower is the largest renewable resource used for electricity.

Table 4 gives detailed information strengths and weaknesses of hydropower option

General characteristics of hydropower plants can be summarized as follows:
● Its resources are more extensively distributed over the world than fossil and nuclear
fuels, allowing it to provide supplementary power to countries who are reliant on
fossil fuels for electricity. Around 150 countries have potential, with roughly 70%
of the commercially possible potential remaining untapped. consuming electricity
In reality, if Turkey could effectively harness its remaining hydropower potential
of roughly 90 TWh/yr, compared to its current total electricity usage of about 190
TWh/yr, it would be able to significantly reduce its energy dependence on foreign
countries.

● The most efficient way to generate electricity is still hydropower. Modern hydro
turbines can convert up to 90% of available energy into electricity, which is also
beneficial to the environment. Only approximately half of the finest fossil fuel
plants are efficient.
● When compared to other large-scale producing options, it has the lowest operating
costs and the longest plant life.
● Because of the fact that its fuel as a renewable source is only water leading to no
fuel cost, it is never affected by any fluctuations in the market.

Historical Development in Turkey

In 1902 the first hydroelectric plant (60 kW) in Turkey was constructed in Tarsus. The total
installed capacity of the country was 29,664 kW and the electricity was available only in
Tarsus, Istanbul, Adapazari and Izmir. Some of the important projects in 1935 were:
Seyhan, Sariyer, Hirfanlı, Kesikkopru, Demirkopru and Kemer dams and hydro plants. By
1940 there were 28 hydro plants corresponding to 3.2% of the total energy production.
Etibank and the Bank of the Provinces implemented the construction of small hydropower
(SHP) plants as well as the electrification of villages and towns. In 1950 the installed
capacity of hydroelectric power plants was 18 MW accounting for only 4.4%. But, after
the establishment of DSI in 1954, the hydroelectric capacity rose to 412 MW. Since 2009
172 hydroelectric plants are in operationwith the total installed capacity of 13,700 MW.
As of 2009, Turkey has constructed 673 dams, which are presently in operation.
Of these 673 dams, 260 facilities have been constructed as large dams and 413 as small
dams. With the addition of dams under construction or scheduled, the number of dams
including both large and small type is estimated to reach 819. Furthermore, by means of
dams located in the region, currently a total land area of 5.28,106 ha has been irrigated and
3.16 bcm of water supply has been serviced to public for domestic utilization.

Turkey is expected to benefit from the regional potential of water resource with the help
of some regional projects being implemented on the Euphrates-Tigris and Coruh basins,
such as the Southeastern Anatolian Project (Turkish initials "GAP") and Coruh project,
which are integrated development projects. As a result, it is expected to have an economic,
social, and cultural impact on the overall structure of the region as a result of modifications
generated by agricultural modernization.

GAP, which has been conducted by DSI, is one of the largest power generation, irrigation,
and development projects of its kind in the world. It covers 9 cities in the region with the
population of 7.35 million people and 3 million ha of agricultural land. This is over 10%
of the cultivable land in Turkey; the land to be irrigated is more than half of the presently
irrigated area in Turkey. It is regarded both to bridge the gap between the southeastern
region and the more advanced areas of Turkey and to increase the welfare of the region.
The GAP including 13 projects (of which 7 is on the Euphrates and 6 is on Tigris basin)
encompasses 22 dams, 19 HEPPs (Hydro Electric Power Plants) and irrigation schemes on
an area extending over 1.79 million ha are carried out. The total cost of the project is 32
billion dollars. The total installed capacity of its power plants is 7490 MW, which implies
an annual production of 27 billion kWh

Small hydroelectric plants

These play a crucial role in rural electrification. They are usually ‘run of river,’ so no
construction of large dams takes place. It has very less of an adverse impact on the
environment. It can generally produce some electricity on demand with no need for storage
or backup systems (at least at times of the year when an adequate flow of water is
available). It is also in many cases cost competitive with fossil fuel power stations or diesel
generated power used for remote rural areas. Small hydro (<10 MW) currently contributes
over 40 GW of world capacity.
The global small hydro potential is believed to be in excess of 100 GW.

Small Hydropower Plants (SHEPS) in Turkey

Turkey has a mountainous landscape with an average elevation of 1132 m that is about
three times higher than the European average. This topography favors the formation of
high gradient mountain streams which are suitable locations for SHEP development. The
use of SHEPs causes minimal changes in natural habitats. Protection against both floods
and droughts can be achieved easily. They also create job opportunities in rural areas and
thus can prevent migration to cities. It can be considered to have the lowest capital cost per
kW among the whole kinds of renewable energy alternatives in Turkey.
Since 1990, number of SHEPS and their capacity has more than doubled. Table 13 gives
the growth trend of SHEPs during the period 1996e2002 and short term and long term
forecast of SHEP development. 85% of all SHEP plants have been recently constructed for
the last two decades. Around 20% of generating capacity of SHEP plants is in private hands

The gross theoretical SHEP potential of Turkey is 50,000 GWh/ year. The technically and
economically feasible potential is 30,000 GWh/year and 20,000 GWh/year, respectively.
Consequently, a huge untapped potential exists for SHEP in Turkey. The remaining
potential of SHEP for Turkey is 19,336 GWh/yr, corresponding to approximately 97% of
economically feasible potential. Only 3.3% of the economically feasible potential has been
developed so far. Suppose that if all the remaining SHEP potential of Turkey was
completely exploited, it would cause the electricity generation of about 20 TWh/yr which
equals almost 10% of the total annual electricity demand of the country.
 Turkish energy sector policies from the perspective of hydropower
plants
In Turkey Electricity Market Law with law no. 4628 was published in March 2001 which
has led to the establishment of Electricity Market Regulatory Authority. Thus the private
sector has been registered as a legal entity and hence it has the right to obtain a license
granted from this authority in order to build and operate power plants. Moreover, with the
publication of Renewable Energy Law (law no. 5340) in May 2005, Turkish government
assured to buy electricity from legal entities with a price of 5.5 Vcent/kWh for 10 years.
Besides, 85% discount is applied for forest and land acquisition to build SHEP plants.
Furthermore, a law was published with law no. 5784 in July 2008, which is strongly
expected to attract entrepreneurs to invest on mini and micro-hydropower plants. After the
publication of this law, applying for a license to generate electricity from renewable energy
up to a capacity of 500 kW does not require legal entities and also government guarantees
the purchase of the excess electricity.

In Turkey, for hydropower plants, law no. 5346 encloses a reservoir area less than 15 km2
and there is no limitation regarding installed capacities. This makes the interest of private
sector move from the river type hydropower plants to the large hydropower system due to
potentially higher profit rates, and the private sector investments in SHEP construction
have increased.

In Turkey, a company must sign the Water Usage Rights Act with DSI to have an SHEP
license. In this context, the company must meet the requirements expressed in the act. To
have an SHEP license, a river basin plan prepared by DSI is considered.
As of March 2008, the private sector developed 1064 hydropower projects in
Turkey with a total installed capacity of 6500 MW. These projects included mostly SHEPs.
This shows that Turkey's economically feasible hydropower potential is much higher than
130 TWh/yr which was calculated before the publication of Law no. 5346. After this law,
it is currently estimated that the total potential will reach 150 TWh/yr.

Conclusion

Hydropower energy is a significant source of energy in Turkey since it is renewable,

clean, and has a low environmental impact. It's also a low-cost, home energy source.
The average exploitable water potential of the country is 110 km3 /year i.e sufficient
enough to meet sustainable development goals. SHEPs of less than 10 MW play a key
role in many countries for rural electrification. Turkey’s hydropower potential can meet
33e46% of its electric energy demand in 2020. Only 3.3% of economically feasible
SHEP potential has been developed so far. If the rest were to be exploited, it would
generate an amount of 20 TWh/yr, almost 10% of Turkey’s annual demand. Only 27%
of theoretically economical hydropower potential is currently utilizable. In fact if Turkey
could efficiently exploit its remaining hydropower potential having an amount of 90
TWh/ yr while its annual energy consumption is almost 190 TWh, Turkey would be able
to lessen significantly its energy dependency on foreign countries. With the contribution
of the regulations and laws published after 2001, the private sector developed 1064
hydropower projects with a total installed capacity of 6500 MW inTurkey until the first
quarter of 2008.