HYDROPOWER CALCULATION Exercise

RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGY COURSE (MJ2411)

1. A river with the flow exceedance of 0.37 m3/s throughout the year passes nearby village in
Nepal. Assume that you have been hired as a consultant to help the village for developing a
hydropower. There is a requirement to leave 15% water in the river for the downstream
irrigation and some other environmental reason. The length of the penstock required is 300
m and gross head is 35m.

Assume that the turbine efficiency is 80% and generator efficiency is 90%. The average energy
demand is 100 watt peak per household and average operating hours is 10 hours a day. The
total household in the village is 600. And 10% of the power is lost in transmission and
distribution. Assume the velocity of water in the penstock is 1.8 m/s and the manning’s
roughness coefficient of the mild steel pipe is 0.012. Assume other losses viz. bend loss and
contraction/expansion loss is negligible. Estimate:

(a) diameter of the penstock pipe?

(b) net head of the project?
(c) power output of the plant? Can the demand of the village be met with the available
head and flow?
(d) What type of turbine is suitable in this range? (Assume turbine to be directly coupled
with generator with speed of 750 RPM)

2. In the above problem 1 if the village was earlier powered by a diesel generator and was
replaced by the hydropower later. Calculate the annual cost saving in terms of avoided
fuel cost and CO2 emission tax. Also estimate CO2 emission avoided. Assume that the
CO2 tax is 360 USD/m3 diesel fuel. Diesel cost is $ 0.7 per liter and specific fuel
consumption of diesel engine is 0.5 liters per Kwh and 1 liter of diesel produces 2.65 kg
of CO2.

3. Suggest type of turbine in the following cases (using following chart) Justify your choice
with some points.
(a) Net head of 300 m and flow of 0.1 m3/s
(b) Net head of 15 m and flow of 40 m3/s
(c) Net head of 18 m and flow of 0.6 m3/s
(d) Net Head of 35m and flow of 1 m3/s