Classification of Hydroelectric Power Plants

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Hydroelectric Plant exhibit a great deal of variety. They can be
classified on the basis of
 Location and topographical features
 Presence or absence of storage
 Range of operating head
 Hydraulic feature of plant
 Operation features
In some projects, Main objective is not only power production
but also for different purposes such as water supply, irrigation,
flood control etc

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 1-Classification Based on Hydraulic Features
Based on hydraulic principle in basic design,
hydroelectric plants can be categorized into four
types

• Conventional hydroelectric plants

• Pumped Storage plants
• Tidal Power Plants
• Depression Power Plants

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• Conventional Hydroelectric Plants
 Plant Utilize normal available hydraulic energy of
flowing water of rivers.

 Dams are constructed to collect water and used for

electricity production

• Tidal Power Plants

Utilize tidal energy of sea waters.

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• Pumped Storage Plants
 Used for meeting the peak demand.
 Such plant utilize the concept of recycling the same water by
pumping the water back during off peak hours.
 Depression Power Plants
 Rare type of hydroelectric plant where hydropower is
generated by diverting an ample amount of water such as
seawater into a natural topographical depression that provides
operating head for the plant.
 This type of plant exists in Egypt.
 Natural evaporation process controls water level in depression.

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2-Classification Based on Location and Topographical features

 Located in hilly areas or in plains

 Plants in hilly areas are always associated with dams , whereas

plants in plain areas may have only weirs for the main
structure.

 In plains the rivers are usually wide with large flood plains and
may need ancillary river training works.

 Knowledge about location and topography for a plant helps in

appreciating these points
• (providing necessary support to the primary activities or operation of an organization, system)

• (A weir is a barrier across a river designed to alter its flow characteristics)

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 3-Classification Based on Storage and Pondage
 classified on consideration whether they have storage reservoir
or not.

 Storage become necessary when flow is uneven over the year.

 With out storage , plants use only natural normal flow.

 In such cases, there may be a mini reservoir or pondage that

takes care of day to day fluctuations.

 Some of run of river plants may also have mini-reservoir or

storage.
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 4-Classification on the Basis of Operation
( Base or Peak)
 Classified according to its operation in meeting the demand
such as base load plant or peak load plant.

 Base load Plant: Continuous power generation.

 Peak load plants: If the condition prevailing at power station

permit regulated release of water, plant can be used to generate
peak power.

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 Generally speaking, Hydropower is quite suitable for peak
load operation due to

 Its quick starting

 Relative ease in picking up load

 Pump storage plants are necessarily Peak load plants,

 whereas run of river plants are base load plants.

Other types of HPP can be classified as per their operation

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 5-Classification Based on Plant Capacity

Sr Type Capacity
No
01 Very low capacity (midget ) UP to 0.1 MW
plants
02 Low capacity Plants UP to 1.0 MW
03 Medium capacity Plants UP to 10 MW
04 High capacity Plants More than 10 MW

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 Sr .No Type Capacity

01 Micro-hydro Plants < 100 KW

02 Mini-hydro Plants 100 KW to 1 MW
03 Small-hydro Plants 1 MW to few MW
04 Hydro Plants More than a few MW
05 Super-hydro Plants More than 100 MW

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 6-Classification Based on Head
 It is difficult to give exact range to classify HPP based on
available head.

Sr.No Type Capacity

01 Low Head Plants < 15 m
02 Medium Head 15-70 m
Plants
03 High Head Plants 71-250 m
04 Very High Head More than 250 m
Plants

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• High Head Plants : Economical
 Due to high head, small amount of water can produce
large amount of power, therefore these type of plants
are very economical.

 Reservoirs are high up in mountains and power house

is at foot, taking advantage of large level difference.

 The catchment area is small and if water from one

stream is not sufficient, then water from neighboring
stream can be diverted to lake through pipeline or
tunnels.

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 The water is carried from main reservoir by tunnel to power house
via surge tank.

 Length of conduit system may be 15km or more.

 An electrical conduit is a tube used to protect and route electrical wiring in
a building or nonbuilding structure. Electrical conduit may be made of
metal, plastic, fiber,. Most conduit is rigid, but flexible conduit is used for
some purposes.
 For heads above 500m, Pelton turbines are used.

 Francis turbines are common for low head.

• Surge tank : standpipe or storage reservoir at the downstream end.

• The main functions of the surge tank are:
• 1. When the load decreases, the water moves backwards and gets stored in it.
• 2. When the load increases, additional supply of water will be provided by surge
tank.
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 Medium Head Plants
 Large amount of water needed as compared to high head plants.

 Therefore a reservoir of large capacity with large catchment area

is required.

 In these plants, Water is generally carried from main reservoir to

the forebay and then to power house through the short penstocks.
• A forebay is an artificial pool of water in front of a larger body of
water. The larger body of water may be natural or man-made.
They are used in flood control

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 There is no need of surge tank in medium head plants, as
forebay itself acts as surge tank.

 Generally, there is one penstock per turbine.

 Francis, Kaplan and Propeller type of turbine are common for

medium head power plants.

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 Low Head Plants
 Water required is much higher than high head power plants.

 Run of river, tidal and midget plants fall in this category.

 Catchment area and magnitude of peak flood are very large,

the Spillway length being considerable.

 Francis, Kaplan or Propeller turbine are used for low head

plants.

 Size of turbine and power house are large.

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 7-Classification Based on Constructional
Features
Run of River Plants:
 Generate power on river with continuous flow throughout the year
with small seasonal variations.

 Neither have large reservoir, nor do they have diversion of water

away from main channel.

 Power house located with a weir spanning the river that also serves
as river flow regulator.

 Site chosen should be on stable reach of river with stable bed and
banks.
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 Max flood anticipated should have low value and water should not
carry much sediment.

 Based on constructional arrangement of power house and weir, run of

river plants can be divided in further groups.
1) Block Power Plant
2) Twin Power Plant
3) Pier-head Power Plant
4) Submersible Power Plant.

 These plants may or may not have pondage.

 Run of river plants with pondage are more reliable and its
generating capacity is less dependent on available rate of flow of
water.
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• Valley Dam Plants
 Dam is constructed for storing water.

 Power house located at toe of dam.

 No diversion of water from main river is involved.

 These are medium to high head plants.

 Artificial head created will depend on height of dam.

 There are different arrangement of power house location and

spillway of dam.
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• Diversion Canal Plants:
 A diversion canal with a flat slope in which the flow from
water is diverted through canal to power house.
 Water from power house is drained back into original river at
downstream point.

 Weir is constructed at the end of canal to create small pool of

water called forebay.
 Water from forebay is fed by means of penstocks to power
house situated in lower reach of river.

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• High Head Diversion Plants:
 Water is diverted though a system of channels and turbines.
 Two ways to achieve it

1) Water is diverted to another neighboring river which is at

much lower level than parent river.
2) Water from river could be diverted along tunnels from an
upper stream point of river to a down stream point of same
river.
 High head diversion plants are more or less similar to low
head diversion canal plants.

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