Estimation of micro hydro power plant capacity from potential sites

Abstract

Energy generation is one of the major key factors for economic and social development in all the developed and developing nations of the world. Adequate amount of energy generation in a sustainable manner is a major challenge in the present energy scenario. Fast depleting fossils fuels and their environmental effects forces to look towards renewable sources for sustainable development. Micro hydropower plants are emerging as a major renewable energy resource today as they do not encounter the problems of population displacement and environmental problems associated with the large hydro power plants. Hydro power plants convert potential energy of water into electricity. The water after generating electrical power is available for irrigation and other purposes. In this paper the work is carried out for evaluating Micro hydro power plants (MHPP) generation availability that can be applied to generation systems reliability and to generation planning studies. It considers the uncertainties of rivers inflows and generation unit operation. While calculating the capacity of power plant to be installed at these sites, it is assumed that there will be water reservation for irrigation and other application also. The expected value of the annual power generation of the MHPP, the duration curve is then plotted.