Waterpower Development

Important terms, definition and

Principal Components of a
Hydro-electric Schemes
 HYDRO ELECTRIC POWER
Introduction:
Power is a very important infrastructure
of the overall development of a nation.
It is the tool to forge the economic
growth of a country.
Thus, there is an ever increasing need
for more and more power generation in
all the countries of the world.
About 30% of the total power of the world is
met by hydro power stations.
There are some countries in the world where
almost entire power production is hydro-
based; for instance,
Norway, where the hydro-power forms more
than 99% of the total installed capacity.
Also, there are countries where vast hydro-
power resources are still untapped.
Two notable examples may be USSR
where the great Siberian rivers are
being harnessed recently, and Nepal
where huge potential from the Himalaya
rivers is still waiting to be tapped.

According to rough estimate, total hydro

potential of the entire world is 5000 GW
with full utilization.
The scope of hydro power shall be clearly
understood when we compare this figure
with the total installed capacity of
approximately 200 GW only.

Even in countries like France, where

conventional hydro power already fully
developed, large scale development in
pumped storage schemes is in progress.
 Hydro-electric Dam

Hydro-electric Power plant

 Types of Water Power
Schemes / Developments
 Types of Water Power Developments
A water power development is essential to utilize
the available power in the fall of a river or a canal,
by means of hydraulic turbines.
A water power development scheme is known as
hydro-electric scheme or briefly as hydel scheme.
The hydel plants can be classified according to their
function as follows:
1) Run-off River Plants
2) Storage Plants
3) Pumped Storage Plants
 1. Run-off River Plants
❖ Run-off river plants are those which utilize the
river flow having no pondage at its upstream.
❖ A weir or a barrage is constructed across the
river, simply to raise the water level slightly.
❖ Such a scheme is essentially a low head scheme,
and is adopted in case of a perennial river which
has minimum dry weather flow of such
magnitude.
Run-off Power plant
 2. Storage Plants
✓ Such plants have a storage reservoir at
their upstream.
✓ A dam is constructed across the river and
water is stored during the periods of
excess supply.
✓ In Pakistan, most of the major plants are of
this category.
 3. Pumped Storage Plants

➢ A pumped storage plant stores power in the form

of potential energy of water.
➢ The scheme consists of a storage reservoir at a
higher level, and a turbine and pump at a lower
level.
➢ The scheme is used to generate power only during
the peak hours of demand.

➢ During the peak demand, water flows from the

reservoir to the turbine then power is generated.
➢ A high head scheme uses a head of more
than 60 m.
➢ A dam of sufficient height is constructed
to store the water to ensure the supplies
through out the year, and to attain
sufficient head.
➢ The high heads needed for high head
schemes can be obtained by one of the
following methods:
1. Construction of high dam:
Such as Mangla dam (Jhelum River), Tarbela dam
(Indus River) in Pakistan or Hover dam in USA fall
under this method. Such dams also help in creating
sufficient storage.
2. Utilization of natural fall:
The natural high falls may be utilized for power
generation. Such as Jog falls in India and Niagara falls
in USA.
3. Conveying water to a lower valley:
The water may be conveyed to a lower valley, such as
Koyna hydel scheme (India) is one such example.
 Principal components of Hydroelectric scheme
A hydroelectric work comprises the following components:
❖ Fore bay
❖ Intake structure
❖ Surge tank
❖ Penstocks
❖ Power house
❖ Turbines and governors
❖ Generators
❖ Transformers
❖ Transmission lines, etc.
1. Fore bay:
o A fore bay is an enlarged body of water just in
front of the intake.
o Its main function is to store temporarily the
water rejected by the plant when the load is
reduced.
o When a canal leads water to the turbines, the
canal itself serves as a fore bay.
o When the penstocks directly take water from
the reservoir, the reservoir acts as the fore bay.
o Often, the canal near the power house is
enlarged to provide an effective fore bay.
2. Intake structure
The water is conveyed from the fore bay to the
penstocks through the intake structure.
Following are the accessories of an intake structure.
i) Trash rack: It prevents the entry of debris into
the penstock.
ii) Racks to clear the trash rack
iii) Ice removal equipment, if necessary
iv) Penstock closing gates
Intake Structures
3. Penstocks
Water from the storage reservoir is carried
out through penstocks or canal to the power
house.
Penstocks are the pipes, usually made of
steel in various forms, reinforced concrete ,
which carry water under pressure from the
storage reservoir to the turbine.
Penstock
 4. Surge Tank and Governors
When the load on turbine is reduced, the
governor automatically closes the inlet gates
partially, to reduce the inflow to the turbines.
This retards the water flowing in the
penstocks, leading to water hammer in the
penstocks.
Then, surge tank is generally provided to
reduce the water hammer pressures.
Surge Tank
5. Turbines and Generators
❖ Hydraulic turbines are the machines which
covert hydraulic energy into mechanical
energy.
❖ The mechanical energy developed by a
turbine is then used in running an electric
generator which is directly coupled to the
shaft of the turbine.
❖ The generator thus develops electric power
which is also some times knows as “hydro-
electric power”.
Turbine
Generator