Soviet design of large turbines for wide head ranges By MF. Krasilnikov and V.A. Linyuchev the USSR (whereby turbines are commissioned well ahead of completion of the civil works, and operate Initially at ow heads) can make a substantial contribution {o the return on the schemes’ capital Investment, because of the large amount of extra electricity which can be Produced. This poses new challenges for the design of lectromechanical equipment, which is required to operate cover a wide head range. This article discusses the current Soviet approach to this problem, and experience which has been gained at some of the world’s largest plants, for ‘example, Nurek and Sayano-Shushensk. T he construction in stages of large scale projects in ‘The operation of hydropower plants with large head variations may be necessary in three cases: @ at an over-year storage scheme; © when a project is constructed in two stages, and the dam hheight isto be raised during the second stage; or, © where there is a need 10 begin power generation at an incomplete dam, before the reservoi is fully impounded, 170 nto, Vltlastn She 3 1812 Meow 48 USSR While the frst case requires an extensive economic analysis to select the turbine type for the recurring ‘operating conditions in the low head range, the other two cases need only the replacement or refurbishment of the ‘main equipment components when the head increases. In the USSR, a great deal of experience has been gained in manufacturing hydro equipment for operation over & wide range of heads. Three types of equipment are used in such cases, selected on the basis of a technical and econ- comical feasibility study for the specific conditions of the project site © A turbine with a wide range of allowable operating heads ‘may be selected. This may be a Kaplan, Francis or Deriaz turbine. According to Soviet standards, these turbines are suitable for a head variation Of Hyin/Ha = 0.5 oF less. Such equipment is used for heads'of less than 150 m at hydro plants where deep drawdown of the reservoir is necessary. (© Temporary runners with an increased specific speed may ‘be installed for the period of operation at low heads. This done at high dam projects, where the civil works and prep aration of the reservoir for filling take a particularly long, time. In this case, asa rule, a single generator with a perm= nent speed is used. rs@ two-speed generators may be Insalled "Thi option has been ted at wo Soviet hydro plants, which were bull in two sage, Wiha substantial increase in head ihe second tage sonstetion | anda fong interval between the | Stages (ore than 10 yar) Ail tree of these options ae, of course, only economically | feasible in the case of large scale | dam project, where te conse thle anova of era power gent. fated as a rol of the average Increase in eine in the lw head range covers the. cost of Imanufactring the special ex iment, and “aso. theacties involed in dmantng the gen ‘ing set end italing new Com ponent examples ofthe application in tne USS of all thee of the Optons described wil be sven next. ig, 2. Section through the Rogun underground powerhouse, where: 1 = wurbines 2 = yr generator: and, 3 = $50 overhead travelling crane. Diagonal flow turbines for operation under a wide range ‘of heads have been installed atthe Zeya and Kolyma hydro- power plants. The world’s largest diagonal flow turbines with 6 m-diameter runners, rated at 220 MW with a speed (of 136.4 rev/min, are installed at Zeya. The rated head of| the turbines is 78.5 m with maximum and minimum values fof 97.3 mand 74.5 m respectively. Initially the turbine was PUL on stream at a head of 40_m, that i, 41 percent of the ‘maximum head. The temporary runners were not necessary {as would have been the case in the Francis turbine applica: tion), which covered the cost of the more expensive Deriaz turbine. The efficiency gain of the Deriaz turbine in the range of “starting” heads in comparison with the Francis cone (with a temporary runner) was 3-4 per cent, which permitted about 3 TWh of electric energy to be generated Additionally for three years during initial operation, ‘Temporary runners in Francis turbines have been used for a number of very large high head hydro schemes in the USSR: for example, in the Nurek 310 MW turbines which operate at a rated head of 223 m, and the Sayano- ‘Shushensk 650 MW turbines which operate at rated head of | 194m. ‘Tabies I and II give parameters of the turbines at Nurek and Sayano-Shushensk with permanent and temporary ‘A design has been developed for 6 m runner diameter 600, MW machines for a maximum head of 320 m, for the Rogun dam. These units are now under construction. A cross section of the machine hall cavern for the ‘underground powerplant is shown in Fig. 2. "The payback of capital costs as a result of running the turbines at lower heads is particularly important inthe case Of this project because of the large scale ofthe civil works G25 m-high rockfill dam with a fill volume of 71 x TOs’), I was therefore decided to design the six turbines to be able to operate at an initial head of 70 to 80 m, Operation under a head range of 70 to 320 m is to be ‘ment for the associated hydraulic system. ‘© Phase 2: When the available head reaches 120-185 m, the temporary runners will be replaced by the permanent ones atthe first two units, without interrupting operation, and fetaining the temporary generators and temporary water ake (© Phase 3: When the head exceeds 185 m, the curbines with permanent runners and generators, connected to the perm- nent water intake structure, will be put into operation ‘The original starting turbines, Nos. 5 and 6, will main in operation, however, for some time during the second phase, for operation when the reservoir is drawn down to below el. 185 m during releases for irigation. Implementation of the proposed starting scheme means that the Rogun hydropower plant can be put into operation using virtually only the 6.5.x 10 m? cofferdam, rather than the main rockfll dam. Thus more than 7 TWh of electricity will be able to be generated ahead of completion (Continued on page 38.) [Table 1 — Characteristics of the turbines at Nurek ‘Runner | Head (m diameter | Speed. | Capaciy o™ ev/min)| MW) Temporary | 4 [17s 90 90 | 20 | 20 Permanent | 475 | 278 17s. — | 200° | 300330) [Fable It — Characteristics ofthe Sayano-Stushensk units TRunner| Head (m) iameer| Start| Speed | Capacity Operation under head range of 70 to 320 m isto be | I pamaers [tah [mat in in| r/min) turbines for these phases ae given in Fig 3): eames eoosd|iabtonn lan eas © Phase 1: When the head has reached 80120 m, two | | MONE {orbines wil stat operating (numbers $ and 6) with emp- | | Petmaneat | 6277 J 20 17s 0) eas | 640 rary runners, temporary generators and special arange ater Fomor & Dam Conmtcon. Regu 150 8 | |Fig. 4 Vertical shaft Kaplan tarbine » ©f 210 MW capacity, where: 1 = 28 {ividevanes; and, =” seven Dladed (Continued from page 38.) ‘of the main dam because ofthis earlier startup of the nits Specification of the speed for the starting turbines was & separate problem associated with the design of the equip ment. From the view point of selection of the temporary runners to be developed (on the bass of existing models), 136.4 rev/min was found to be the mos suitable speed. But this meant that new temporary generators would have had to have been developed, because only the thrust bearing, bracket, rotor spider and other non-clectromagnetic components of the standard set could be used. Then, tunrecoverable costs would have been as high as 60 per cent of the total cost of the generator. The best compromise therefore was to adopt a speed of 125 rev/min. The new temporary runner, 4,835 m in diameter, was designed for this speed. It features high power and cavitation-resistance characteristics, with runaway speed not exceeding the Standard speed, and achieves optimum operation within the 130-120 m head range. During replacement of the temporary ‘generator (with a speed of 125 rev/min) for the permanent fone (with a speed of 166.7 rev/min), the unrecoverable ‘costs will be reduced by 20-25 per cent. “The custom-made designs of both the turbines and gen- erators for the Rogun dam project was necessitated by the need to reduce as far as possible the overall dimensions of the underground machine hall. For instance, the standard design of the 600 MW turbine with a 6 m runner diameter ‘would have required the provision of the spherical shutoff valves directly in front of the spiral case, calling for the Water Power & Dam Construction, August 1090double entry spiral cases and the installation of two 4.2 ‘mdiameter shutoff valves for each turbine. This would hhave required a substantial capital investment for the civil works, equipment and additional space to accommodate the spherical shutoff valves, and this turned out to be ‘unacceptable from the viewpoint of the stress state in the rock mass around the underground caverns. Therefore turbine with a follower ring valve, provided between the stayvanes and the guidevanes was developed. “The follower ring valve has a riumber of advantages: iis cheaper than shutoff valves, does not cause extra hydraulic losses, and achieves teliable closure of the hydrauli passage almost without increasing the overall dimensions of i hall, beeause ofits location within the turbine tors for the Rogun project (Fig. 1) have water- cooling (de-ionized water) for the rotor windings, stator land core. The adoption of complete water cooling for the generator allowed for the overall dimensions ofthe ventil- tion enclosure to be reduced by 2.5 m (in comparison with the generator with the water cooling system for the stator winding only) and a corresponding reduction in the size of ‘the machine hall cavern was thus achieved. ‘The installation of double speed generators allows forthe same runner to be used for two head ranges. It reduces the cost of the turbine, and costs relating to the complete replacement of the turbine, although the generator is slightly higher (approximately $-10 per cent), ‘This arrangement was adopted for the Shulba hydro: powerplant, where the frst unit was commissioned in 1988. ‘The range of heads was 16-30 m for the first phase, and 30-48 m for the second phase. The rated power of the turbine inthe first phase was 120 MW with arated head of | 23.5'm, and at the second phase, 230 MW, with a rated | head of 40m, This turbine is the largest adjustable-blade Kaplan turbine in the world, Unfortunately, its normal operation was not verified at the second phase. The cross section of the turbine is given in Fig. 4. Conclusion ‘The tendency for staged construction of the large scale hydropower projects with gradual increase inthe head, 10 reduce the initial capital investment for the projec, Dresents new requirements for electromechanical equip- iment. As has been shown, efficient operation of the equipment under a wide range of heads can be achieved by the application of Francis and Deriaz turbines, temporary Francis runners or two speed generators. a A new approach to turbine speed By J.L. Gordon, Vice President* mination of turbine speed is to develop empirical Tormulae for each type of turbine, relating specific speed to the net head. Turbine runaer speed thus becomes & function of head, diameter, and runner throat velocity. In ‘wo previous articls!2 the author demonstrated that the ‘number of runner blades has an influence on the turbine Setting. Such is also the case for runner speed. By including ‘the number of runner blades and the type of draft tube, itis possible to develop a more accurate equation for speed, ‘with one equation covering all types of reaction (pit, bulb, ‘Kaplan, propeller and Francis) turbines, as will be shown in this article The new equation is based om an analysis of 155 turbine units. ‘The most recent data on specifi speed have been developed by Schweiger and Gregori? with three equations relating specific speed n, to head h as follows: Francis turbines 304 0084 Kaplan turbines 791 hae -@) ap i PO en Merl i | Bub srins ny = 1089 A-ves -@) ed from the specific speed ‘Turbine flow @ is a function of turbine throat diameter d and throat velocity, since = 0785 av =) (Continued on pe $1) = actual runner sped (t¥/min) ‘alculated runner speed (e/a) = turbine specific speed, based on ow = turbine rated flow (m/s) ¥ = groseasial velocity through turbine runner throat, with 0, deduction for area occupied by runner hub or blades (m8) | ° 4. * ‘Water Power & Dam Construction August 1980 ®