3.

Household Level
Hydropower Generation

Prepared by
Ayele,Henok, Melese &Sied
June 12, 2012
 Content
3.1 Background
3.2 Hydraulic theory
3.3 Cost benefit analysis
3.4 Applications of HLHP
3.5 Conclusion and Recommendation

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 3.1 Background
• Whether water exists in the form of rain, seawater
or ice, it is constantly moving as part of our
planet's water cycle.
• When we use water's motion to generate
electricity, it is known as hydropower, and is a
renewable source of energy.
• Hydropower plants enable moving water to push a
turbine, which produces electricity. In small
hydropower science projects, you can probe the
ways in which water's kinetic energy can be
converted into mechanical work.
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 Continued…
• Over the centuries rural communities world-wide
have used power from streams to process food.
• Nowadays compact metal water turbines tend to
be used instead of traditional wooden water
wheels.
• They are used as a power source for a wide range
of applications, including grain milling and
electricity generation, workshop tools,
refrigeration, hospitals, clinics and battery
charging.
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 Continued…
• Often, there is an increasing need for
power supply in rural areas, partly to
supply small industries, and partly to
provide illumination at night. It is useful to
explore energy that can generate income at
all level, or contribute towards augmenting
the productivity of household work.
• Often house hold level-hydro power
project is most dependable and efficient
means to meet the power requirements.
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 Continued…
• Though they are small, comparatively they
are effective when used in remote areas
where the power grid does not prevail or
cost to extend the grid connection.

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 Continued…
• There are thousands of sites where people have a
source of falling water but do not have electricity.
For these rural communities specially in
household levels, Pico hydro is the lowest-cost
technology for generating electricity.
• Lighting from this source is cheaper than using
kerosene lamps, and safer, too.
• It shows that Pico hydro is potentially the lowest
cost technology for off-grid electrification.

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 Continued…
• To generate a household hydropower the main
parts of the system, as shown in the background
picture, are:
Intake From Stream Or River,
Pipe (Known As The Penstock),
Water Turbine,
Electrical Generator,
Electronic Controller,
Electrical Distribution system.
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 HLHP Generation in Ethiopia
• Ethiopia is a country endowed with large hydropower
potential. According to studies made in river basins, the
hydropower resource is estimated to have a potential in the
order of 161,000 Gwh/year.
• So far, however, only a fraction of this tremendous potential
has been harnessed for any meaningful contribution to the
socio-economic development of the country.
• Hydropower is an important source of power generation in
Ethiopia.
• Unfortunately, the large centralized hydropower plants on
the countries larger Rivers are, by themselves, not enough to
electrify all parts of the country. 9
 Continued…
• This is because grid extension is expensive and
not cost effective when done in remote areas that
are sparsely populated. As such, rural
communities and private project developers have
been supported to construct community
run Pico and micro hydropower schemes.
• These are cheaper to build and easier to maintain.
Many such schemes are not being implemented in
various villages in Ethiopia.

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 Continued…
• To ensure community ownership and
sustainability, projects are organized in a way that
community members contribute to the scheme
through in-kind (labor, building materials) and
monetary (connection fees) contributions.
Members are also empowered to manage the
schemes through training on the technical and
management aspects of micro hydropower
schemes.
• The schemes differ only in the amounts of
electricity each is able to generate;
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 What will we have if HLHP develop
in Ethiopia
The most changes are:
• Increase in income,
• Work sharing, leisure time,
• Community initiatives;
• Sanitation and cleanliness;
• Awareness and empowerment;
• Management of local natural resources, forest
protection, sustainable practices of land
utilization; so on and so forth.
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3.2 Hydraulic theory

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 Continued…
How Hydropower Works
• Hydropower systems use the energy in flowing
water to produce electricity or mechanical energy.
• Although there are several ways to harness the
moving water to produce energy, run-of-the-river
systems, which do not require large storage
reservoirs, are often used for micro hydro, and
sometimes for small-scale hydro, projects.

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 Continued…
• For run-of-the-river hydro projects, a portion of a
river’s water is diverted to a channel, pipeline, or
pressurized pipeline (penstock) that delivers it to a
waterwheel or turbine.
• The moving water rotates the wheel or turbine,
which spins a shaft.
• The motion of the shaft can be used for mechanical
processes, such as pumping water, or it can be used
to power an alternator or generator to generate
electricity.
• This fact sheet will focus on how to develop a run-
of-the-river project. 15
 Continued…
• The power available at any instant is the product
of what is called flow volume and what is called
head.
Determining head
• Head is the vertical distance that water falls. It’s
usually measured in feet, meters, or units of
pressure.
• Head also is a function of the characteristics of
the channel or pipe through which it flows.

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 Continued…
• Most small hydropower sites are categorized as
low or high head.
• When determining head, we need to consider
both gross head and net head.
• Gross head is the vertical distance between the
top of the penstock that conveys the water under
pressure and the point where the water discharges
from the turbine.
• Net head equals gross head minus losses due to
friction and turbulence in the piping.
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 Continued…

• Head is the vertical distance the water falls.

Higher heads require less water to produce a
given amount of power.
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 Continued…
Determining flow
• The quantity of water falling is called flow.
Estimating power output
• The potential or theoretical power in any river stretch
with a difference in elevation H is computed from

Where Pp = Potential (theoretical) power of the stream

in kW
H = head in m
Q = stream discharge in m3/s
g = unit weight of water, 9.81 kN/m3
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 How much power can we generate?
• The amount of power available depends on the dynamic
head, the amount of water flow and the efficiency of the
turbine/generator combination. To get an idea about
available power in watts, multiply the head in feet, times
flow in GPM, times 0.18 times efficiency.
• The combined efficiency of the turbine and generator
ranges from 40% to 80%, with higher efficiency at higher
heads and for larger generators. To get a rough idea, use
0.50 (representing 50%) as a multiplier for efficiency.
• Here are example computations using the minimum
parameters mentioned above.
• 10 ft x 100 gpm x 0.18 x 0.50 eff = 90 watts
• 200 ft x 5 gpm x 0.18 x 0.50 eff = 90 watts
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 Continued…
• Assume the number of house holds are 10 and
the river has a minimum discharge of 0.2m3/s
with a head of 2.5m.
• Develop a hydropower for these house holds for
the given parameters.
Solution.
• From WCD lines 75watt per household is
necessary.
• Therefore for 10 house holds the total power
required is 750watts = 0.75kW.
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 Continued…
• Therefore to develop this required power Pico-
hydropower is appropriate and the power that
estimated from the river has to be greater than the
required power.
• From the river we can develop the theoretical power
as:
• Power = QH
= 0.5*9.81kN/m3*0.2m3/s*2.5m
= 2kw
• Since the required power is less than the available
power so it is safe. Propeller turbine is appropriate
for the above combined Q vs H
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 3.3 Cost benefit analysis
• Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) is a technique
commonly used by economists to evaluate potential
investment options based upon the costs involved,
and the benefits to be brought through realization of
the project.
• Although the unit of value is money, this is merely a
vehicle enabling a common unit of comparison, and
many non-monetary costs and benefits are evaluated
during the process; one difficulty being the
conversion between non-monetary and monetary
valuations.
• Where multiple options are considered for achieving
a particular goal, the role of the CBA is to calculate
which option offers the greatest excess benefit over
cost (Figure 1). 23
Points in CBA

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 Continued…
The following briefly explains the main issues and difficulties
surrounding CBA (WCD, 2000) of HP
• Economic valuation of project externalities
• Valuation of impacts over time
• Difficulty in accounting for risk and uncertainty
• Macroeconomic effects:
• Equity and distribution issues:
• Number of households that can be provided with green
electricity from the new hydropower plant. Levels:
• Impact of the new hydropower plant on landscape and natural
environment. Levels: small impact, strong impact.
• Creation of new possibilities for recreational activities . Levels:
yes, no
• Increase in monthly electricity bill. Levels: e 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and
18
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Appropriate Hp type for house hold.
• The options have been chosen so that the most difficult
to quantify benefit, economic growth due to
electrification, will be the same for each as the same
number of households are to be electrified.
• The level of service may be slightly different (i.e. Pico
may not be able to generate electricity all of the time)
but this discrepancy can be accounted for through the
final analysis.
• Estimation of the benefits obtained through rural
electrification has been attempted,

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 Continued…
• Fast flowing streams pass close to or through many of the target
communities, which lend themselves to Micro or Pico hydro
schemes.
• Where geographically and geo physically feasible, Pico
hydropower poses one of the potential solutions to enhance access
to electricity and improve rural livelihoods in remote regions of a
country.
• Pico hydropower is a technology that can utilize a small river or
stream to generate electricity of up to 5 kW. It has been
successfully adopted in some countries in South-Eastern Asia.
• Only village distribution networks are required or short
transmission lines to distribute Micro-hydro power to several small
villages.
• 75W is taken as the average figure per household, which
represents a typical supply for a rural household, being enough for
a single standard bulb (or several compact fluorescent lamps) and a
radio. Actual usage during the day would vary from 0-75 W.
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 Identification of Project Impacts
In the selection of hydropower projects we should focus
the impacts like:
• Reliable supply of electricity to rural communities.
• Alteration of rural landscapes due to power lines.
• Employment opportunities for inhabitants of rural
communities in the construction and operation of
multiple localized generating stations.
• But in the case of house hold level hydropower
generation Pico or micro power is selective and its
adverse effect in different prospects are negligible.
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 Continued…
• Finally after considering the negative and
positive impact of the alternative projects we
have to estimate the utility from each project by
using economic models like:

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• As WCD guide lines 10 households each with
75W supplies entails a total demand of
0.75kW.
•

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 3.4 Applications of HLHP
• It is appropriate for scattered population.
• The project can run in low economy
• It needs short period to accomplish
• Easy maintenance
• Encourage community participation.
• Effective
• suitable for most rivers
• Generally this house hold hydropower project is
more appropriate for those villages which are not
suitable for ICS. 31
If so why these projects were not exercise
in Ethiopia?
• There were lack of professionals in the country.
• No attention for such kinds of projects.
• Due to priority that given to inter connected
systems for big cities in the country.
• The population was illiterate and they had no
any concept about hydro power.
• Other energy sources were not expensive as
such today.
• The energy consumption of the country was
small. 32
 Benefits of house hold hydropower
• Income from sale of electricity.
• Time savings for household chores.
• Improved productivity for home businesses.
• Less expensive/more use of lighting/radio.
• Reduced deforestation.
• Cheaper/reliable electricity for industry/urban
consumers.
• Contribution to economic growth.

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 Benefits of house holders from new hydropower
development
• Emission-free generation of electricity ( CO2 -avoidance).
• Positive impacts on the local economy (especially
employment effects).
• Improvement of domestic energy security ( energy self-
sufficiency).
• Recreational area
• No Visual impacts on the landscape.
• Less negative consequences for the ecosystem of the water
body (e.g. disruption of the water stream consistency,...).
• Less impacts on fish and other water-dependent wildlife.
• Trade-of between emission-free electricity generation and
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nature conservation.
 Continued…
• The main beneficiaries of electrification are women.
No more back-breaking hours of pounding and
grinding of cereals – now they have their Mill.
• No more they come hurriedly from the field to do
the evening cooking before it is too dark. There has
been an increase in leisure time and income
generating activities. Access to information and the
world outside has become much easier.
• The Micro Hydro also benefits the neighboring
villages helping them charge batteries, use the Mill
and gets direct employment and also other income
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generation activities.
 3.5 Conclusion and Recommendation
Recommendations:
• Assessment of Ethiopia's water resource base and
government policies relating to the use and
management of energy resources indicates that the
country has a huge potential for rural electrification
through the household system.
• It is thus recommended that the government, non-
governmental organizations and the public make
concerted efforts to overcome this challenges by using
more flexible approaches to improve the current
dreadful state of rural electrification in Ethiopia this
house hold hydropower system is the best way.
• Since the population distribution in the country is so
scattered household level hydropower development is
more economical.
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 Continued…
Conclusion:
The following points summaries the issues that could be
considered as opportunities for rural electrification in
Ethiopia:
• Ethiopia has several rivers that carry huge amount of
water and head (the country stands only second in
Africa next to the Democratic Republic of Congo)
and this is a good opportunity to develop hydropower
in household level.

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 References
• A Community Based Micro Hydro: A Promising
Technology for Rural Development in Nepal
• Environmental Issues and Mitigation Measures,
Downstream Releases and Related Issues - A
Advantages of Hydropower Generation.
• Comparison of hydropower options for developing
countries with regard to the environmental, social and
economic aspects
• RURAL ELECTRIFICATION IN ETHIOPIA:
OPPORTUNITIES AND BOTTLENECKS
• internet browsing…

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THE END!!!

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