Framework development for the evaluation of conduit hydropower within water distribution systems: A South African case study

Abstract

The universal lack of access to available water infrastructure data restricts the quantification of hydropower potential and thus the identification of new potential sites. Furthermore, limited research on methods to alleviate the problem associated with hydropower evaluation using limited data exists. To address this deficit, a generic framework was developed to quantify the potential and to identify conduit hydropower sites in bulk water supply systems when limited data poses a challenge. This paper describes the development of the first generic method of evaluating hydropower potential in water infrastructure and provides an example of implementation to verify/validate the range of recommended assumptions using a South African case study. The developed conduit hydropower framework was applied to five case studies to estimate the potential available for three scenarios with different levels of data availability. The analyses showed that on average the variance between the actual potential and the estimated potential available using the developed framework ranges between 6% and 18%. The newly-developed conduit hydropower framework can thus be used to identify hydropower potential in water distribution systems.