CHAPTER – 2

Elements of Hydro-Electric Power

Plant
• The essential elements of hydro-electric power plant are as follows
(i) Dam and Reservoir (ii) Forebay
(iii) Spill way (iv) Intake

(v) Trash rack (vi) Surg tank

(vii) Power house and equipment (viii) Penstock

(ix) Draft tube (x) Tail Race

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Fig 2.1. Schematic dia. of hydro-power plant

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 Reservoir
• It is used to store water which may be utilized to run the turbines
to produce electric power by running the hydroelectric turbines.
• Reservoir may be natural such as lake or artificial reservoir can
be built by erecting a dam across the river.
• Water held in upstream reservoir is called storage whereas water
behind the dam at the plant is called pondage.
• Storage refers to large reservoirs to take care of monthly or
seasonal fluctuations in the river flow, pondage usually refers to
the small storage at the back of a weir, in run of-river plants, for
temporarily storing water during nonworking hours, idle days
and low load periods for use during hours of peak load demand
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Pondage is needed to cover the following four aspects:
a. To store the idle day flow.
b. For use during hours of peak load.
c. To balance the fluctuations in the stream flow.
d. To compensate for wastage (due to leakage) and spillage

Catchment Area
The catchment area of a hydro plant is the whole area behind
the dam, draining into a stream or river across which the dam
has been built at a suitable place.

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Dam

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 Dam
A dam is structure of masonry or some other material built at a
suitable location across a river.
The primary function of the dam is to provide a head of water.
In order to generate a required quantity of power it is necessary
that a sufficient head is available.
It also creates pondage or storage. Economy and safety are the
basic requirement of a dam.
Dam should be capable of resisting pressure of water and should
be stable under all conditions.
• The purpose of the dam is to store the water and to regulate the
out going flow of water.
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 Fore bay
• It is small water reservoir at the end of water passage from the
reservoir and before the water is fed to the penstock.
• Its main function is to temporarily store the water in the event of
rejection of load by the turbine and there is withdrawal of water
from it when load is increased.
• The Forebay is provided with some type of outlet structure to
direct water to pen stock.
The Forebay is used:
 To decrease the distance to the power house so as to get the
turbine on and off within a shorter period.
 To decrease length of penstock
 To halt the propagation of pressure waves to the power canal

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 Cont.…
Following are the parts of a typical Forebay:
(i)Entrance bay or basin
(ii)Spillway
(iii) Flushing sluice
(iv) Screens
(v)valve chamber or gate chamber
(vi) Penstock inlet

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 Spillway
• It is constructed to act as a safety valve.
• It discharge the overflow water to the down stream side when
the reservoir is full.
• These are generally constructed of concrete and provided
with water discharge opening.
Types of Spillways
a. Overflow spillways b. Chute spillways
c. Side-channel spillways d. Shaft spillways
e. Siphon spillways f. Service
g. Emergency spillways

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 Reading Assignment

•Different Types of
Spillways

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 Intake Structure
• Intake structure is provided before penstocks to regulate the
quality and quantity of water into the penstocks.

• Intake Structure is provided with trash racks so as to prevent the

entry of debris into the penstocks, thus to avoid the possible
damage to the turbines and to avoid chocking up of the nozzle.

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 The main function of intake are:
• To control flow of water in to the penstock. The
control is achieved by a gate or a valve.
• To provide smooth, easy and turbulence free entry
of water in the conveyance system which is to minimize head
loss.
• To prevent entry of coarse river born trash matter such as
boulders, logs, tree branches etc. Provision of trash racks at
the entrance achieve this function.
• To exclude heavy sediment load of the river from interring the
conveyance system. Special devices such as silt traps and silt
excluders are used to control & trap the silt.

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 Trash Rack
• It is provided to prevent the entry debris into the intakes from
dam or from the Forebay.
• Manual cleaning or mechanical cleaning is used to remove the
debris from trash rack.
• Trash rack is made up of steel bars and it is placed across the
intake to prevent entry of debris to the intake.
• The spacing of bars depends upon the following factors.
(i)Type of turbine
(ii)Size of floating material. If floating material is large and
height of trash rack structure is more, mechanical cleaning is
economical.
(iii) Velocity of flow through trash rack.
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Cont.…

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 POWER HOUSE AND EQUIPMENTS:-
 It is a building consisting of a substructure to support the hydraulic
and electrical equipment and to house and protect the
electromechanical equipment that convert the potential energy of
water into electricity.
 The substructure usually consists of a concrete block (Anchor
block) extending from the foundations to the generator floor.
 A travelling crane is provided to facilitate the lifting of heavy
machines.
A power house usually contains the following components:
1.Hydraulic turbines 2.Electric generators
3.Governors 4.Water circulation pumps
5.Air ducts 6. Switch board and instruments
7. Storage batteries 8.Cranes 15
 Cont..
• A power house should have a stable structure and its layout
should be such that adequate space is provided around the
equipment for convenient dismantling and repair.
• The basic requirement for power house planning is functional
efficiency coupled with aesthetic beauty
• Two types of Power plants may be used
i) Surface power plants. The building of such power plants is
located above the ground.
ii) Underground power plants. The building of these
powerplants is situated in caves excavated below the ground.
• Surface power plants are quite commonly used.

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POWER HOUSE 17
 HYDRAULIC TURBINES
 Hydro Turbines is the heart of hydro power system, where water
is converted in to the rotational force that drives the generator .
 It is a rotary machine that converts kinetic and potential energy
of water into mechanical energy.
• A turbine consists of wheel (called runner) which is provided
with specially designed blades or buckets.
• The water having large hydraulic energy is made to strike the
runner, and thus causing it to rotate, this rotation of the turbine
runner is passed on the generator by coupling the generator and
turbine together through the turbine shaft.
• This results in rotating the generator armature, and thus
producing electrical power.
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 TYPES OF TURBINES
• Based on velocity and pressure of water, hydro turbines
cab be classified in to:
1. Impulse turbines
• Pelton Wheel
• Cross Flow Turbines
2. Reaction turbines
• Propeller Turbines : Kaplan Turbine
• Francis Turbines

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 Impulse Turbines
In impulse turbine water coming out of the nozzle at the end of
penstock is made to strike a series of buckets fitted on the
periphery of a wheel or runner.
Pressure energy of water is converted entirely into kinetic
energy.
The pressure at the inlet to the runner and discharge is same
and is atmospheric throughout.
The majority of impulse turbines are horizontal shaft turbines.
Impulse turbines are suitable for water moving with high
velocity and for high heads.
High head, low flow applications
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 Advantages of hydropower turbine
• Hydraulic turbines have the following advantages.
(i) Simple in construction
(ii) Easily controllable
(iii) Efficient
(iv) Ability to work at peak load or stand by plant
(v) They can work on load variations and can run for weeks
without much attention
(vi) They can start from cold conditions and pick up load in a
short time.
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 Cont.…
There are two types of impulse turbines:
1. Pelton wheel,
2.Cross Flow

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 Cont.…
 The component parts of a Pelton wheel are as follows
(a) Buckets (b) Nozzle and needle valve
(c) Shaft (d) Penstock
(e) Tail race channel.
Buckets are the hemispherical cups bolted to a shaft.
They are the main parts which absorb and transmit the energy
of water.
Nozzle imparts a very high velocity water. Needle valve is
used to control the water discharge to the turbine.
Pelton wheel Turbine is used for high Head and low Flow

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 Reaction Turbines
• Water enters all round the periphery of runner and the runner remains full
of water every time and water acting on wheel is under pressure which is
greater than atmospheric.
• The turbine may be submerged below the tail race but the accessibility to
the turbine becomes difficult.
• The turbine is installed above the tail-race and water after doing work is
discharged into the tail-race through a draft tube which remains submerged
deep in the tail-race.

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 Cont.…
• Before entering the turbine water has both pressure energy and
kinetic energy.
• The forces on the rotating parts are due to change of both
potential and kinetic energy of water.
• The casing in a reaction turbine is essential as pressure at the
inlet is more than at the outlet.

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 Reaction Turbines
• Reaction turbines may be horizontal
shaft type or vertical shaft type turbine
but large reaction turbines are usually
of the vertical types.
• These turbines are used for low and
medium heads.
• Reaction turbines include Francis
turbine, Kaplan and Propeller turbines.
• For low heads and high flows Kaplan
turbine also called propeller turbine is
used

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 Francis turbine
• It is used for low to medium heads and flows
• It is an inward radial flow reaction turbine.
• It consists of runner provided with vanes, wicket gates (guide vanes),
guide mechanism, draft tube and spiral casing.
• Guide vanes regulate the supply of water according to the load and
also direct water to enter into the runner vanes at a suitable angle.
• In this turbine the water enters the turbine through penstock connected
to spiral casing.
• The water is then direct to enter the guide vanes and from guide vanes
it enters the runner vanes.
• Finally the water is discharged through the draft tube.
• The overall efficiency of this turbine lies between 85 to 90%.

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 Cont.…

Figure - Francis turbine

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 Cont.…
• The most common type of turbine for
hydropower plants is the Francis
Turbine, which looks like a big disc
with curved blades.
• The water strikes and turns the large
blades of a turbine, which is attached
to a generator above it by way of a
shaft.

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 Comparison of Pelton Wheel and Francis Turbine

(i) It is easier to regulate Pelton wheel than Francis turbine.

(ii) The operating efficiencies specially between half and full load
are better in Francis turbine.
(iii) The parts of Pelton wheel are more easily accessible and,
therefore, it is easier to repair them.
(iv) For the same head the running speed of Francis turbine is
more than Pelton wheel.
This reduces cost of generators and dimensions of units.
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 Cont.…
(v)The dimensions of Francis turbine are much less than those of

Pelton wheel under similar operating head.

 Therefore, the power house of smaller size is required to

accommodate the same number of Francis turbines.

(vi) Francis turbine utilizes full available head by using a draft

tube whereas the Pelton wheel has to be installed above the

maximum tail race which causes loss of head.

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Comparison b/n Impulse and reaction type turbines

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 WICKETS GATE
• Key component in hydroelectric turbines that control the flow
of water from the input pipes (Penstock) to the turbine
propellers/blades

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 Generator
 Generator is the heart of the hydroelectric
power plant
 The generators used in hydro power plants
are usually three phase synchronous
machines.
 Generators have either a vertical shaft
arrangement or horizontal shaft
arrangement. But vertical shaft
arrangement is preferred.
 The basic process of generating electricity
is to rotate a series of magnets inside a
.
coils of wire.
 This process moves electrons, which
produces electrical current.
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 Cont.…
Each generator is made of certain basic parts:
1. Shaft 2. Exciter
3. Rotor 4. Stator

 As the turbine turns, the excitor sends an electrical current to

the rotor. The rotor is a series of large electromagnets that
spins inside a tightly-wound coil of copper wire, called the
stator.
 The magnetic field between the coil and the magnets creates
an electric current.

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 GOVERNORS AND CONTROLS
The generators are always required to run at constant speed
irrespective of the variations of load. This is achieved by means
of a governor
•This constant speed of the generator is given by:
Where: f = is the frequency of the generated power
p = number of poles of generator
The speed of the generator can be maintained at a constant level
only if the speed of the turbine runner is constant.
It is known as the synchronous speed of the turbine for which it
is designed and given by equation …….(*) above.

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 Cont.…
• If the load on the generator is vary but the input for the turbine
remains the same, then the speed of the runner
i) tends to increase if the load reduces or
ii) tends to decrease if the load on the generator rises.
   Therefore, the speed of the generator (N) and
hence the frequency (F) will vary accordingly,
which is not desired.
• Thus, the speed of the runner is always required
to be maintained at constant level at all loads.
• This is done automatically by a governor which
regulates the quantity of water flowing through
the runner in proportion to the load.
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 Transformer
• They are used to convert alternating current of one voltage to
alternating current of some other desired voltage.
• Majority of Electric power generation, Transmission and
distribution in the world are done through the use of 3-phase
systems because of its several advantages over single-phase
systems.
• There for transformers used in power stations are always three-
phase transformers.
• It is connected to the output of a generator to step up the voltage
to the transmission level.
• Higher voltage and lower current reduce the required size and
cost of transmission lines and reduce transmission losses as well.
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Transformers

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 PENSTOCK
 Penstocks are the huge diameter pipes which carry water under
pressure from the storage reservoir to the turbines.
The water in the reservoir is considered as stored energy.
 When the gate opens the water flowing through the
penstock becomes kinetic energy because it is in motion.
 Penstocks are generally made of steel or reinforced concrete.
 If the distance of the power house from the fore way is small,
separate penstocks are used for each turbine. But long
penstocks are generally branched at the lower end so as to serve
several turbine.
 Penstocks closing gates are usually provided at the entrance in
the fore way.
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 Cont.…
 The velocity of water in penstock is
 about 2 m/sec in low head
 about 4 m/sec for medium
 7 m/sec for high head power plants.
 The diameter and cross-sectional area of penstock pipe would
be smaller to acquire high velocity of water.
 It is desirable that the penstock should be sloping towards the
power house and its grade may be varied as desired to suit the
topography.
 Sharp bends in the penstock should be avoided because they
cause loss of head and require special anchorages.
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 Types of Penstocks
Penstocks may be of two types
(i) Exposed penstocks (ii) Buried penstocks
Advantages of exposed penstocks are as follows:
(i) Less expensive to install
(ii) Maintenance is easier
(iii) Inspection is easier
(iv) Life is more
 Buried penstocks are preferred where land slide, snow slide or
falling rocks may take place.
 In very cold climates where freezing is expected buried
penstocks are used. However corrosion is more and life is less
in case of buried penstocks. 42
 Selecting Number of penstocks
A hydro power plant uses a number of water turbines which are to
be supplied water through penstocks. Following alternative
choices may be considered
(i)To use a single penstock for the whole of plant. But long
penstocks are generally branched at the lower end so as to serve
several turbine.
(ii)If the distance of the power house from the fore way is small,
separate penstocks are used for each turbine.
(iii)To provide multiple penstocks but each penstock supplying
water to at least two turbines.

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 Cont.…
• The following factors should be considered while selecting the
number of penstocks to be used to supply water to the turbines
(i)Economy. From economic point of view if length of penstock
is short one penstock should be provided for each turbine. For
longer penstocks a single penstock or as few penstocks as
possible may be used.
• (ii) Operational safety. Use of a single penstock is not desirable
because any damage to the penstock would necessitate a
complete shut down at all the turbines.
• (iii) Transportation facilities. The size of penstock selected
should be such that transportation of penstock should be easier.
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Figure: Penstock

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 Penstock Thickness Calculation
• The thickness of steel penstock depends on water head and hoop stress
allowed in the material. It is calculated using the following relation:
where: t = Penstock thickness
d = Diameter of penstock
f = Permissible stress
P = Pressure due to water including water hammer
= wH
w = specific weight of water and H head of water.
η = Joint efficiency.
 The joint efficiency is about 80% for riveted joints and 90% for
welded joints.

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Example

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Example

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 Exercise -1
• A penstock supplies water at a head equivalent to 18 kg/cm2.
There is a possibility of 15% increase in pressure due to transient
conditions. The design stress and efficiency of joint may be taken
as 1000 kg/cm 2 and 88% respectively, if internal diameter of
penstock is 1.3 m find wall thickness of penstock.

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 Surge tank
• Surge tanks are provided to reduce the water hammer pressure
in the penstock .
• When there is a sudden close or decrease in pressure due to
control valve then there is a back flow of water.
• This creates a high pressure zone in the penstock due to which it
may burst . This effect is known as WATER HAMMERING
EFFECT .
• To avoid this a tank is attached to the penstock which stores water
in it, this tank is called Surge Tank.
• When water is rejected by the turbines, the water level in the surge
tank rises and when additional water is required, the immediate
demand is met by drawing water from the surge tank
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 Purpose of surge tank
i) Stabilize flow of water to the turbine,
ii) Water hammer relief or pressure regulation, and
iii)Storage function

Representation of Surge Tank 51

 Draft Tube
• The draft tube is a conduit which connects the outlet of the
turbine runner to the tailrace.
• The draft tube allows the turbine to be set above the tail race to
facilitate inspection and maintenance of the turbine.
• The water after doing useful work on the turbine runner passes
through the draft tube to the tail-race
• Draft tube is a metallic pipe or concrete tunnel having gradually
increasing cross-sectional area towards outlet to ensure that as
little energy possibly is left in water as it discharges into the
tail-race

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 Cont.…
• The advantages of having a draft tube instead of letting the
water fall directly are:

1.Effective pressure head on the turbine is increased.

2.The draft tube permits the turbines to be installed at a higher

level than the tailwater level, facilitating the maintenance of
the turbine

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 Tail Race
• It is a waterway to lead the water discharged from the turbine to
the river.
• After useful work in the turbine the water passes through the
draft tube to tail race.
• The channel into which the water is discharged to the river after
passing through the turbines is known as tailrace.
• If the power house is close to the stream, the outflow may be
directly discharged into the stream
• But if the stream is far off, a channel of considerable length
between the power house and the stream have to be constructed.

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 Conclusion
 Hydro power plant, consists of electrical and mechanical
equipment :
(a) Electrical Equipment.
(i) Generators
(ii) Exciters and voltage regulators
(iii) Transformers (iv) Switchgear.
(v) Control room equipment including switch boards.
 The generators used in hydro power plants are usually three
phase synchronous machines.

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 (b) Mechanical Equipment
 The mechanical equipment in a hydro power plant consists of
the following:
(i) Shaft, couplings, bearings etc.
(ii) Compressors and air ducts
(iii) Braking equipment for the generator
(iv) The oil circuits and pumps
(v) Ventilation and cooling systems
(vi) Cranes and other lifting equipment
(vii) Equipment for power houses lighting
(viii) Equipment for water supply and drainage.

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 Control Room
• The control room equipment is used to perform the following
functions
(i) Machine starting and stopping
(ii) Generator and system voltage control
(iii) Machine loading control
(iv) Frequency control
(v) Hydraulic control
The control room is generally situated in the power house.
Automatic and semiautomatic together with push—button
control systems are preferred.

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THANK YOU
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