Article Hydroelectricity

Hydropower Electricity
Author: Shahzaib Ali

Submitted to: Dr. Waseem

Department of Electrical Engineering
(University of Sargodha)
Author 1 Shahzaib Ali
Article Hydroelectricity

Table of Content
 Title Page 1
 Table of Figures 3
 Abstract 4
 Introduction 5
 Literature View 6
 Research Methodology 9
 Conclusion 10
 References 11

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TABLE OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1 [8] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7

FIGURE 2[10] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8
FIGURE 3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9

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ABSTRACT
Hydroelectricity is a source of energy usually we get from the movement of water with respect to
the height. Now-a-days, the need of electricity is increased so far that the available recourses are
not enough to complete the need, So the world is using hydro system to complete there needs of
Electricity. The main components of hydroelectricity plants are Dams, rivers and turbines (used to
move the generator).

The major advantage of hydroelectric dams with reservoirs is their ability to store water at low
cost for send of later as high value clean electricity. Hydro power system is environmentally
friendly. Since hydroelectric dams do not use fuel for running, power generation does not produce
CO2.Stored water due to reservoir give facilities of water sports and attracts the tourist themselves.

Hydroelectric stations are economic friendly due to their long lives. Production of hydropower
system provides us electricity, highways, industries and commerce to communities, thus
developing the economy, expanding access to health and education, and improving the quality of
life. Hydroelectricity has the highest efficiency among the all other renewable resources, up to
95%. Due to its great reliability and efficiency, hydropower plays an important role in the
development. With all these benefits hydro power also has some disadvantages and it makes people
to displace to other areas and becomes the main producer of methane gas which is very harmful.

The objective is to realize how hydropower stations taking advantage of desirable energy in the
water, with low submergence and economic costs, considering seasonal changes in power
production to meet the region's demand during all seasons. Also, the future of the hydropower
system and its impacts on the environment.

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INTRODUCTION
Hydropower or hydroelectricity states the conversion of energy from the flow water into
electricity. It is the renewable source of the energy because the water used in the production of
electricity can be reused. Hydroelectricity is produced when the moving water strikes with the
turbine shaft, this movement of turbine is converted to electricity with a generator.

Hydropower became an electricity source in the last 19th century, a few decades later British-
American engineer James Francis developed the first water turbine. In 1882, the world's first
hydroelectric power plant began working in the United States along the Fox River in Appleton,
Wisconsin [2].

Firstly, hydro power was used for mechanical milling, such as granulating of grains. Today,
developed hydro plants produce electricity using turbines and generators. In 1831, the was most
imported year when first hydropower system was invented by Michael Faraday. This foundation
laid us to learn how to generate electricity with hydropower almost half a century later, in 1878[3].
Hydroelectric power had given the benefits to the industrial revolution at the beginning of the
1800’s by providing mechanical power for textile and machine industries.

According to the Facts and Figueres, hydropower is the biggest contributor than all other
renewable energy sources and contributes for 6.7% of worldwide electricity need. Hydropower is
the most reliable source of energy in the world. In the production of hydroelectricity, water is
stored at a certain height and moved towards downward through large pipes or tunnels (usually
known as penstocks) to a lower elevation, this difference between these two elevations is known
as the head. The falling water causes turbines to move when it strikes the blades. This movement
in return drive generators, which convert the mechanical energy of turbines into electricity. Step-
Up transformers are then used to convert the alternating voltage suitable for the generators to a
higher voltage suitable for long-distance supply(transmission). Area where all this system is placed
is called as powerhouse.

Due to these Benefits, the world had preferred the hydropower systems for completing their need
of electricity. In 2008, Three Gorges Dam was built China which is the largest power plant at
current era, producing 22.500 MW, giving China’s installed hydroelectric capacity of 196.79 GW
(2009) [4]. Figures tells us that the world’s largest electricity production units are also hydroelectric
such as: The Three Gorges in China (18.5 GW), Itapúa in Brazil (14.8 GW), Gury in Venezuela
(10.1 GW) and Tucupi in Brazil (8.4 GW) [4].

The benefits hydroelectric dams with reservoirs is their ability to collect water at low cost for
dispatch later as high value clean electricity which helps in economic growth. As running of
hydropower plants don’t use any kind of burning of fossil fuels so it’s also environmentally
friendly by reducing the emission of CO2.Dams gives opportunity to arrange the sports and it also
becomes the attraction of tourists .Beside all these benefits of hydropower system there are also
some disadvantages that it urges number of people to displace from one place to the other.

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Literature Review

 Renewable Source of energy [7]

Representatives of more than 175 countries comes to an agreement at the Top World
Conference on Sustainable Development, in Johannesburg (2002), and at the 3rd World Forum
on Water, in Kyoto (2003).They agreed that having renewable source of energy will give them
more benefits; including these benefits and there effects on the environment they all agreed
and comes in the support of Hydropower system. Because hydropower system is the most
reliable and renewable source of energy. It’s a never-ending source of energy because the
amount of water in this world is not affecting by it (not becoming less). Hence hydropower
energy producing electricity on running of water without reducing its quantity that’s why it a
suitable source of Electricity.

 Economic Growth [6]

Economic growth for every country is so much imported in the present Era. Hydropower
systems give them a best way to increase their economy by investing at the start which will
give them the growth in there economy up to long time. Electricity we get from the hydro
systems gives completes the 50% need of all one third countries. hydroelectric developments
are long-term investments that can benefit various generations. They can be easily upgraded
to include advanced technologies and have very low running and maintenance costs.

Finn R. Forsund declares in his article on economic overview on hydropower that most
countries economy grow with the number of visitors or tourist visits to their country. Making
dams attracts the tourists to themselves which results in the growth in the economy of the
country. Most visited Dam in the world is Contra Dam in Switzerland which growing the
economy in two ways by generating electricity and due to the attraction of tourists.

 Climate Effect [8]

According to the Luis Berge, Hydropower is the cleanest, environmentally friendly source of
energy. He declared in his research that Hydropower and climate change are in double
relationship. On the one side, hydropower is the most efficient renewable source of energy and
contributes to the avoidance of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to the reduction of global
warming. On the other side, climate change is likely to adjust river discharge, affecting water
availability and hydropower generation. At the global level, the overall effect on climate
change by hydropower generation is very small, or even slightly positive. However, there is
the possibility of small variations in climate change across regions and even within countries
but overall it is environmentally friendly. Hydropower prevents the nature from the emission
of about 3 GT CO2 per year, or about 9% of global yearly CO2 emissions. Simply he concluded
in its article that it is a source of energy that produces few GHG emissions and effects the
climate.

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Following picture describes the climate change effects of hydropower and other renewable
sources;

FIGURE 1 [8]: CLIMATE CHANGES DUE TO RENEWABLE SOURCES

 Future Pathways [9]

Hydropower is there for more than a century, and is currently the largest source of clean, renewable
electricity. What would be its role in development look like in the year 2050? According to Jose
Zayas, hydropower is the oldest form of renewable electricity, many steps remain critical to further
advancement of domestic hydropower as a key energy source of the future. This include continued
development in technology that will lowers the costs and air quality and reduced outpouring that
hydropower provides. In Future, hydropower can support more than 195,000 jobs across the U.S.
in 2050. By 2050, hydropower can reduce the growing greenhouse gas discharge by 5.6 gigatons
which is equivalent to approximately 1.2 billion passenger vehicles operating in a year. Which in
return will be saving $209 billion by keeping away from global damages from climate change. By
2050, hydropower reservoirs can save 30 trillion gallons of water which is roughly equivalent to
45 million Olympic-size swimming pools. By 2050, hydropower can save nearly $58 billion from
healthcare costs and economic damages which are caused by air pollution.

 Hydroelectric Limitation [2]

Most of the hydropower systems in the world are bondage-based, utilizing wide reservoirs for
storage of water. The electricity produced from these stations is renewable, but it’s not greenhouse
gas uncommitted. The hydropower reservoirs are a source of methane, which is almost 25 times
more greenhouse powerful than carbon dioxide (CO2). Methane is produced in the dam when
organic matter(plants) decays in the absence of oxygen. The greenhouse gas released from
hydropower systems are approximately based on CO2 equivalency (CO2e) and they range widely

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from 5 to 200g CO2e/kWh, with its average value of 40g CO2e/KWh. If we do its comparison with
coal-fired power stations which rejects 1000g CO2e/kWh, five times as much as the highest-
emitting dams.

FIGURE 2[10]: EMISSION OF METHANE GAS

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Research Methodology
Methods for generating hydroelectricity particularly uses the flow of water. In the production of
hydroelectricity, we need to have the flow of water. Dams are made to store the water and then
released from a height towards downward through the pipes (known as penstocks). The water
strikes with the blades which are at the end of the penstocks. The blades of the turbine moved with
the flow of the water which in return rotates the rotor in the generator, attached with the turbine.
The rotor produces the magnetic field around the coil which generates the electricity and it is
transmitted to far places through the transmission lines.

In this method the kinetic energy of the flowing water turns vanes in a hydraulic turbine, this form
of energy is converted to mechanical. The turbine rotates the generator rotor which in return
converts this mechanical energy into electrical energy and the system is known hydroelectric
power system. The following pic will show the process of production;

FIGURE 3:GENERATING HYDROELECTRICITY

This is the basic methodology usually used all over the world to produce electricity from water.
According to the Facts and figures from the expert the electricity through this method is 97%
useable and the stored can also give number of benefits related to other fields.

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Conclusion
Hydropower system is clean, renewable and environmentally friendly form of energy. It produces
round about 3930 (TWh) and submit 16% of the world’s electricity and about 71% of renewable
electricity generation (in 2015). It adds significantly to the reduction of GHG emissions. Simply,
it’s a source of energy that generates few GHG emissions. Hydropower is the only renewable
electricity production technology that is flexible to give both peak and base load electricity demand
at a low cost comparable to coal-produced electricity. Dams also gives the possibility to store the
water at a large scale and becomes the attraction of the tourists and so it also gives growth to the
economy. It needs high investment at start but has a very long duration with low operating and
maintenance costs. The only limitation in the hydropower is the production of methane gas under
the water. The future of hydropower depends on careful planning to reduce the negative impacts
on communities, ecosystems and lifestyle remarkable sites

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6.References

Frauke Urban and Tom Mitchell 2011. Climate change, disasters and electricity
generation Archived September 20, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. London: Overseas Development
Institute and Institute of Development Studies

One of the Oldest Hydroelectric Power Plants in Europa Built on Tesla’s Principels, Explorations in the
History of Machines and Mechanisms: Proceedings of HMM2012, Teun Koetsier and Marco Ceccarelli, 2012.
5. Association for Industrial Archaeology (1987). Industrial archaeology review, Volumes 10-11. Oxford
University
6. Hydropower Economics : An Overview by Finn R. Førsund
7. Amber, S. and Doucet, J. A. (2003): “Decentralizing hydro power production,” Canadian
Journal of Economics 36, 587-607.
"Renewable Energy Essentials: Hydropower" (PDF). IEA.org. International Energy Agency. Archived
from the original (PDF) on 2017-03-29. Retrieved 2017-01-1
Lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions pg19
10. One of the Oldest Hydroelectric Power Plants in Europa Built on Tesla’s Principels, Explorations in the
History of Machines and Mechanisms: Proceedings of HMM2012, Teun Koetsier and Marco Ceccarelli,
2012
11. Berge L. Dams for sustainable development. In: Proceedings of High-level
International Forum on Water Resources and Hydropower; 2008 Oct 17‒18;Beijing,
China; 2008.
Hydropower – A Way of Becoming Independent of Fossil Energy? Archived 28 May 2008 at the Wayback
Machine
Bent Sørensen (2004). Renewable Energy: Its Physics, Engineering, Use, Environmental Impacts,
Economy, and Planning Aspects. Academic Press. pp. 556–. ISBN 978-0-12-656153-1.

Author 11 Shahzaib Ali