Experience and Possibilities of Effectively Utilizing the Energy Resources of the Dargom–Taligulyan Water and Energy Tract: Part II

Abstract

This article examines the possibility of improving the energy efficiency of small advanced hydropower plants planned for construction on the operated multipurpose water–power tract in the Samarkand region. The variability of changes in the capacity generated monthly during the year and in the amounts of electricity generated by such small-scale hydropower plants (HPPs) as the Shaudar and Bagishamal power plants of the water-and-power path is numerically analyzed and found out to be 7.2 and 6.0 MW, respectively. A significant difference in the energy performance of the hydropower plants is discovered in their developed capacity and amount of electricity generated in winter–spring, summer, and autumn–winter. To equalize the fluctuations in the developed capacity produced by small hydropower plants, the expediency of using the energy of mountain-valley winds of the surface (up to 60–70 m) layers of the atmosphere in the zone of the water–power path is justified, including the possibility of creating integrated hydropower and wind power plants. This is based on a joint analysis of the regimes of watercourses and wind flows, which showed their complementarity during their minima and maxima. Numerical studies have allowed estimating the average monthly amount of electricity generated by 60, 250, 500, and 750 kW windmills of different types when installed at different heights above the Earth’s surface; the average daily runtime by months, the average monthly runtime duration and continuous downtime. The data from the numerical studies of the operation of the windmills have allowed justifying the expediency of creating energy–generation systems with mutually complementary operation modes of HPPs and WPPs with different variants of using windmills of particular capacity at different altitudes. The necessary area of the territory for placing windmills to create WPPs with a capacity commensurate with the capacity of advanced small hydropower plants is estimated.