Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Date 09.07.2012
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Figure index
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FIGURE 56 EXAMPLE OF BENEFIT/COSTS CHART .......................................................................................- 49 -
FIGURE 57 EXAMPLE OF NET PRESENT VALUE CHART ................................................................................- 49 -
FIGURE 58 EXAMPLE OF PAY BACK TIME CHART .........................................................................................- 50 -
FIGURE 59 EXAMPLE OF UPDATED PERFORMANCE INDEX CHART .................................................................- 50 -
FIGURE 60 STEPS TO GENERATE A GIS MAP OF RESULTS ............................................................................- 51 -
FIGURE 61 EXAMPLE OF BENEFIT/COST MAP FOR 100 M OF STRUCTURAL LENGTH .........................................- 52 -
FIGURE 62 SELECTION OF A BASE MAP ......................................................................................................- 53 -
FIGURE 63 EXAMPLE OF BENEFIT/COST MAP FOR 100 M OF STRUCTURAL LENGTH, WITH A SATELLITE BASE MAP - 53 -
FIGURE 64 EXAMPLE OF NET PRESENT VALUE MAP FOR 2000 M OF STRUCTURAL LENGTH .............................- 54 -
FIGURE 65 EXAMPLE OF PAYBACK TIME MAP FOR 500 M OF STRUCTURAL LENGTH .........................................- 54 -
FIGURE 66 EXAMPLE OF UPDATED PERFORMANCE INDEX MAP FOR 5000 M OF STRUCTURAL LENGTH ..............- 55 -
FIGURE 67 STEPS TO GENERATE THE EXPORTED EXCEL FILE .......................................................................- 55 -
FIGURE 68 PARAMETERS THAT CAN BE EXPORTED TO EXCEL .....................................................................- 56 -
FIGURE 69 EXAMPLE OF EXPORTED EXCEL FILE .......................................................................................- 57 -
FIGURE 70 HYDROPOWER EXPLOITATION OPTIMIZATION STEPS ....................................................................- 58 -
FIGURE 71 HYDROPOWER EXPLOITATION AUTOMATIC OPTIMIZATION EXAMPLE ...............................................- 59 -
FIGURE 72 HYDROPOWER EXPLOITATION MANUAL OPTIMIZATION EXAMPLE ....................................................- 60 -
FIGURE 73 SAVING THE OPTIMIZED CONFIGURATION ...................................................................................- 60 -
FIGURE 74 STEPS TO VISUALIZE THE OPTIMIZED CONFIGURATION IN A GIS MAP .............................................- 61 -
FIGURE 75 VISUALIZATION OF A GROUP OF OPTIMIZED PLANTS WITH A SATELLITE PICTURE BACKGROUND ..........- 62 -
FIGURE 76 DETAILED VISUALIZATION OF AN OPTIMIZED PLANT WITH A SATELLITE PICTURE BACKGROUND ...........- 62 -
FIGURE 77 CONCENTRATED PLANTS SELECTION ........................................................................................- 63 -
FIGURE 78 MAXIMUM INSTALLATION POWER FUNCTION OF THE HEAD CLASSES ..............................................- 64 -
FIGURE 79 MAXIMUM INSTALLATION POWER FUNCTION OF THE HEAD CLASSES ..............................................- 64 -
FIGURE 80 BACKWATER LENGTHS IN FUNCTION OF THE HEAD CLASSES .........................................................- 65 -
FIGURE 81 OPTIMIZATION WINDOWS FOR THE CONCENTRATED TYPE PLANTS .................................................- 65 -
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1. Preface
The present work is an outcome of the project SEE HYDROPOWER, targeted to improve
water resource management for a growing renewable energy production, in the frame of
the South-East-Europe Transnational Cooperation Programme, co-funded by the European
Regional Development Fund (www.seehydropower.eu).
The project is based on the European Directive on the promotion of Electricity from
Renewable Energy Sources respect to the Kyoto protocol targets, that aims to establish an
overall binding target of 20% share of renewable energy sources in energy consumption to
be achieved by each Member State, as well as binding national targets by 2020 in line with
the overall EU target of 20%. Objectives of the SEE HYDROPOWER deal with the
promotion of hydro energy production in SEE countries, by the optimization of water
resource exploitation, in a compatible way with other water users following environmental
friendly approaches. Therefore, it gives a strong contribution to the integration between the
Water Frame and the RES-e Directives.
Main activities of the project concerns the definition of policies, methodologies and tools for
a better water & hydropower planning and management; the establishment of common
criteria for preserving water bodies; to assess strategies to improve hydropower
implementation, such as small hydropower; testing studies in pilot catchments of partner
countries; promotion and dissemination of project outcomes among target groups all over
the SEE Region countries.
In particular, here is presented the VAPIDRO-ASTE 4.0 user guide, which is part of the
Work Package 5 - Common strategies to improve SHP implementation.
VAPIDRO ASTE is a GIS integrated numerical tool that allows the evaluation of the residual
potential hydropower energy and all possible alternatives concerning future sites for
hydroelectric plants along the river network, taking into account the relationship between its
full costs and the benefits of the sale of the generated power in the national market.
To download and use the VAPIDRO-ASTE tool, the user must accept particular terms, listed
in the following chapter.
The next paragraphs detail the theoretical background of the tool, the description and a
user guide.
The VAPIDRO-ASTE tool is written in Visual Basic 6.0 language, the following Operating
Systems are supported:
Microsoft Windows XP, 2000 or 7 (VAPIDRO-ASTE does not function with Vista);
ESRI ArcGis 10.0 Service Pack 4 with the Spatial Analyst extension (Spatial
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Analyst extension is installable and activated from the arcmap menu:
Tools/extensions an then select spatial Analyst):
2) Run the setup.exe program and follow the installation instructions (The
installation could take up to 20 minutes, depending on your PC power)
During the first run the tool will decompress a DTM (Digital Terrain Model), needed for the
application.
If you have an old VAPIDRO-ASTE version installed, follow the next steps:
1) Export any old project into a temporary folder, using the Project/Export function
Warning: Not all versions of VAPIDRO-ASTE will have compatibility with projects created
with previous versions.
The published results of the use of the software must always be quoted through the
following sentence: The VAPIDRO-ASTE software has been used. It has been
produced by RSE S.p.A in the frame of the SEE HYDROPOWER project financed
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by the South East Europe Program and the Research Fund for the Italian Electrical
System.
The published results must have at least the following reference: Peviani M.,
Alterach J., Danelli A. - SEE HYDROPOWER Project, targeted to improve water
resource management for a growing renewable energy production, HYDRO 2011
Praha October 17-19, 2011.
The product is delivered as it is, without any guarantee. The authors, RSE S.p.A. or
the Research on Electrical System itself, may not be considered, at any rate,
responsible for direct or indirect damages deriving from the use of this product or
from the impossibility to use it.
The product is delivered together with a User Guide and no further documentation
or support is expected.
The use of the software is limited to the Recipient signed below. Recipient may use
the software VAPIDRO-ASTE for the informed company purposes and may not
grant rights to use it to any other individual or entity.
The tool takes into account the water resources present exploitation with its geographical
location and elevations (irrigation uses, drinkable water, existing hydropower plants, etc.),
and the limitation that this creates regarding the potential energy patterns. The software is
based on the topographic information (Digital Elevation Model) and the mean rainfall maps,
with a whole analysis of the catchment, together with the regional evaluation of available
discharges along the river system.
Based upon a user friendly graphical interface, the tool is able to split the river into a
hundreds of cross sections, calculate the available discharges and potential hydropower
production, taking into account constrains like minimum flow, withdrawals and restitutions
scheme.
To achieve the optimization VAPIDRO ASTE performs an economical & financial analysis of
Small Hydropower Plants (SHP), including green certificates and eventual governmental
subsides.
The tool shows to be a quite powerful instrument to support decision makers and
stakeholders, for the energy plan preparation, the assessment and the implementation of
small scale hydropower plants.
The main chapters of the present report are divided as follows: the first part related to the
methodology implemented and the second part regarding the user guide of the tool.
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4.1. VAPIDRO-ASTE methodology
The present chapter illustrates some preliminary concepts and some methodological
aspects of the VAPIDRO-ASTE tool.
hydropower plants with diversions: the distance between the water intake and the
power house is more than 50 m;
concentrated hydropower plants: the distance between the water intake and the
power house is less than 50 m;
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Figure 2 Most common hydropower layouts
In the first case (plants with diversion), the length channel is not negligible and there is a
penstock. In the second case the barrage and the power house are concentrated in the
same structure.
The so called structural length (L) is defined as the distance between the intake and the
restitution point, measured along the river thalweg. It is practically divided into the length of
the channel and the penstock.
The following figure illustrates the distance, with the VAPIDRO-ASTE simplification:
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VAPIDRO-ASTE calculates the hydropower potential taking into account 13 different
structural lengths, varying from 50 m to 5000 m:
As we will see, in case of need the user is still able to change these values during the
VAPIDRO-ASTE project creation.
at least one point with available flow (mean annual discharge) data, otherwise a
regionalization method can be applied [Alterach et al, 2005, 2006];
water exploitation annual volumes with its precise location, i.e. withdrawal flows and
restitutions flows along the analyzed river stream.
evaluation of the Point Natural Flow (Qnat) in a particular section, equals the Point
Available Flow (Qav) subtracting the effect of the upstream withdrawal/restitution
scheme;
estimation of the Natural Flow (Qnat(x)) in every river section x every 50 m (default
value), as a result of interpolations and proportions based on the Qnat data;
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(default value), equals to the calculated Natural Flow minus the upstream
withdrawal/restitution flows;
calculation of the Hydropower Withdrawal Flow (Qhp(x)) in every river cross section
x, that represents the design value (mean annual discharge) for hydropower
generation plants. It takes into consideration also the downstream
withdrawal/restitution flows and the Minimum Instream Flow (MIF).
The following figure shows the conceptual scheme followed to calculate the Hydropower
Withdrawal Flow in a given cross section.
The Qnat for each measure point is obtained by adding the upstream withdrawal/restitution
flows as in the following formula:
N
Qnat = Qav + q j
j=1
where:
The following figure shows a schematic representation of the measure section (Available
Flow) and the withdrawal/restitution upstream scheme:
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Figure 6 Flow measure cross section and upstream withdrawal/restitution scheme
The third step concerns the evaluation of the available flow Qav(x) in every cross section,
calculated as follows:
where:
Qnat(x) the natural flow calculated in the cross section x using the
interpolation/proportion method;
The intake cross section of a hypothetical small hydro power plant must be designed for the
available withdrawal mean annual flow. The method considers two constrains:
the Minimum Instream Flow (or Minimum Environmental Flow, MIF) calculated in the
hypothetical intake section;
the downstream withdrawals affected by the hypothetical small hydro itself (i.e.
between the intake and the restitution points).
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Figure 8 Withdrawal scheme between the intake and restitution points
Let us define the Maximum Withdrawal Flow (Qmax) in a given cross section s as the
mean annual discharge that is possible to withdraw compatibly with the environmental
constrains in the section s:
where Qav represents the available flow in a cross section s as defined above and MIF is
the Minimum Instream Flow considering river environmental quality, which can be assumed
equal to the 10% of the natural flow in each cross section s.
In order to calculate the Hydropower Withdrawal Flow (Qhp) for each cross section x, one
of the parameters that determine the potential hydropower production, it is necessary to
refer to the critical section s, with the lowest Qmax value in the L domain. The so called
structural length (L) is defined as the distance between the intake and the restitution
points, measured along the river thalweg.
The released discharge in the power plant cross section is the following:
and the mean annual discharge that can be withdrawal for hydropower purposes is:
It is possible to demonstrate that this methodology can ever satisfy two constrains: the
Minimum Instream Flow in the hypothetical intake section and the water availability at the
downstream exploitation points.
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Figure 9 Gross head calculation
The gross head is calculated for each combination of cross section and structural length, as
the vertical distance between the level of the water intake and the restitution (tailrace).
The geodetic head corresponds to the Gross Head, while the "Net Head" is obtained
considering the hydraulic losses:
where:
Simplified method
Hydraulic method
Altimetric method
H = Kp . L
Where
L structural length
The hydraulic method considers the full energy loss equation, and the relationship
between the penstock length and the structural length (default 0.25). Thus, the structural
length is divided between the channel and the penstock lengths:
where:
H energy losses
L structural length
Q hydropower discharge
D Penstock diameter
In the altimetric method the channel length is equal to the structural length and the
penstock length is equal to the gross head. The following scheme explains the concept:
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Where
H energy losses
H Gross head
L structural length
Q hydropower discharge
D Penstock diameter
where:
The above mentioned energy is the maximum potential available, considering the total
exploitation of Available Withdrawal Flow during the entire year (8760 hours), taking into
consideration withdrawals and MIF.
P(x, L) = E ( x, l ) / Kh
where
P (x,L) is the installable power in a given section x for a structural length L (kW)
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4.1.5. Economic feasibility
The choice of the most appropriate sites for the hydropower exploitation depends upon the
relationship between the construction and maintenance costs of the full system and the
income from energy selling plus the additional grants, such as the Green Certificates. The
economic parameters to be considered are the following:
the hydropower plant cost (civil and electrical), for different structural lengths equal
to 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000, 3500, 4000 and 5000 meters;
cost of the penstock function of the pipe diameter and the structural length;
cost of the weir and intake basin depending on the design flow and the upstream
basin area;
The parametric relations were deducted from geometric general constructions of the
structures involved and real cases in Italy (report RdS CESI RICERCA 2007, prot.
08006003).
On the other hand, the income is represented by the produced energy selling during the
plant lifetime and the benefits of the Green Certificates for the first 15 years (Italy).
For plants with less than 1 MW installed capacity, in Italy is possible to choose between two
types of calculations of the updated benefit: separate rate and global rate.
Separate rate: one value of selling price of energy + green certificates values
(/kwh)
Where
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Pcv green certificates price (/kWh)
Global rate: one value of incentived selling price during the incentivation period
(/kwh)
Where:
The above mentioned formulas permit to calculate the Income/Cost ratio for every
combination of intake sections x and structural lengths L.
The whole optimization process takes into account a chain of hydropower plants with
different L and x (two freedom degrees optimization). The optimized configuration is
obtained maximizing the energy production and the Income/Cost relation of the total chain.
This user guide is based on the VAPIDRO ASTE Version 4.0, SEE HYDROPOWER project
customized version.
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The following paragraphs relate to some relevant working aspects of the software:
Results view
The VAPIDRO-ASTE tool is able to calculate automatically the river network associated to
the interesting area. The user chose the interesting river branch, where to calculate the
potential hydropower production, and then a series of chained sub-basins, are generated
by the model.
The following figure shows a VAPIDRO-ASTE window containing the map of a river reach
with the sub-basin generated automatically.
The first activities performed by the VAPIDRO-ASTE during the project creation are the
following:
Split of the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) regarding the interesting area.
Automatic creation of the river network, by means of the Arcinfo Spatial Analyst
functions.
Automatic creation of the sub-basins used for the interpolation (Figure 11):
Each basin is identified by its own closure point and the software calculates automatically
the necessary data to perform the flow interpolation: progressive distances x, sub-basin
areas, minimum elevation.
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At this step, the user inputs the measured flows (Qav), or natural flows (Qnat) in one or
more points over the selected watercourse.
The software is able to calculate automatically the potential hydro energy and installed
power for the selected watercourse, in a logarithmic scale.
As an example, the Figure 12 and Figure 13 show the maximum installable power and the
maximum energy produced in an analyzed river reach.
It is possible to observe that the software produces a set of energy and power curves which
are parametric with the structural length L from 50 to 5000 m.
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Figure 13 Produced hydropower energy along the watercourse
The tool is capable to represent the hydropower potential in a map, with a colour spectrum,
as shown in the following figure:
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The whole exploitation of the river is performed maximizing the global Income/Cost ratio (or
other financial parameter) creating a hydropower plants exploitation chain. The Figure 15
and Figure 16 show eight optimized intakes position (squares), with the background of the
Net Present Value curves and the longitudinal representations of the intakes and
powerhouses positions:
Other way to represent the optimized position of the hydropower plants is in a mapping
way, laying intake (blue triangles) and powerhouse locations (red squares):
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The new VAPIDRO-ASTE version permits to visualize the GIS data with the satellite map
background, downloaded automatically from the ARCGIS internet server:
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Figure 19 Automatic optimization window
Verify the screen and international properties and setup the EXCEL and ARCGIS
directory paths in your disk:
- 24 -
Figure 20 VAPIDRO initial setup
When all is completed, click on OK: the vapidro.ini file will be created.
During the first installation the digital elevation model of the needed area will be
decompressed and saved into the hard disk, to be used by the tool.
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Go to the Project/New menu, and enter the new project name without spaces, for example
Frido:
Select the calculation methodology, depending on the type of the collected data in your
area, for example measured flows:
The default values of the structural lengths are 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500,
3000, 3500, 4000, 4500 and 5000 m. If necessary, the user may change with his own
values of structural length.
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Figure 23 Main project parameters
The selection of the season parameter 2,3 or 4 means that the needed data depends on
who the year is split, i.e. if you select 4 mean flow annual values per year then discharges
and withdrawals should be defined by 4 values per year each point.
During the creation of a new project, the user must select the Digital Elevation Model (DTM)
of the basin where to work:
The figure shows how to select a DTM corresponding to a given SEE HYDROPOWER pilot
case:
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Figure 24 Selection of a SEE HYDROPOWER pilot case DTM
In the case of a user DTM, different from the installed SEE HYDROPOWER pilot cases,
click on the key and select the DTM saved in your personal directory:
Figure 25 Selection of a user defined Digital Elevation Model during the creation of a project
Warning: The name of the DTM should be different from the name of the project created.
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Figure 26 ARCGIS Window with the Italian map
Warning: in case of problems, verify the ARCGIS installation and the activation of the
needed ESRI Spatial Analyst Extension.
Select Crop DTM. Define the output cell size then crop (cut a rectangle) on the specific
area of your interests, with a click on each angle of the cropping polygon. To accept the
area, click Exit and run processing.
If your area of interest is inside the Italian territory (DTM ITALY when creating a project),
VAPIDRO-ASTE has a special tool that permits to select the area introducing the involved
river name. Click on Select river, the name of the river and OK:
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Figure 28 Area identification helped by the Italian river query
The selected river will be shown highlighted. Then proceed with the cropping area process
as explained before.
Try different flow accumulation values to identify the river network with the desired density.
Define the downstream point of the study case river, click on select downstream point and
the click on the downstream branch on the map. Then the case river will be highlighted:
Click on create basins and define the number of basins. The higher the number of basins,
the more accurate definition of watercourse results (discharge, energy, power, etc.). The
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suggested number of sub-basins is from 20 to 30, but it is possible to select as much as de
user wants.
Flows to determine the discharge profile into the watercourse. There must be almost
one point in the selected watercourse
The flows in the watercourse could be natural or measured depending on the initial
selection when creating the project the first time.
Click on Input Flows, to input the mean annual values of flows in the selected river. Click
on the river where to put the flow point and add the value.
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Figure 33 Flow input
Almost one point is needed, but it is possible to add more flow points in the river:
VAPIDRO-ASTE will interpolate the discharges considering the weight with the basin area.
The quantity of flows to input in each point, depends on the seasonal parameter selected
during the creation of the project (1, 2, 3 or 4).
To eventually introduce withdrawal points click on Input Withdrawals. Input the mean
annual values of diversion or restitution discharge. Click on the river and tributaries where
to put the withdrawal point and add the value. Positive values mean diversion, negative
values mean restitution of water into the river. It is possible to add more than one
withdrawal points. It is possible to delete wrong flow points.
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Also in this case, the number of withdrawal (or restitution) values for each point, depends
on the seasonal parameter selected during the project creation (1, 2, 3 or 4 values per
year).
It is important to notice that it is necessary to locate almost one point of flow into the
selected watercourse, but could be possible to have no value of withdrawal, like the case of
natural basins.
It is possible to input withdrawals and restitutions using an ARCGIS shapefile containing all
the points. The software will move automatically every water use point to the closest river
branch.
The GIS projection needed for each area are the following:
Financial Analysis
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5.3.1. Energy Power and head parameters
Energy
Power
After completing these values, save the data and perform calculations or change to initial
investment costs or to financial analysis.
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In this step it is possible to verify or change the following initial investment costs
parameters:
Warning: the default parameters are in and are related to mean Italian cost profile in
2010. Each user must verify the specific cost correlation curves in their own country.
The parametric relations were deducted from geometric general constructions of the
structures and real cases in Italy (report RdS CESI RICERCA 2007, prot. 08006003).
- 36 -
After completing these values, save the data and perform calculations or change to
financial analysis.
In this step it is possible to verify or change the financial parameters, operation &
maintenance costs, energy prices:
Warning: the default parameters are related to the mean Italian profile in 2010. Each user
must verify the specific updating rate, the energy price and taxes in their own country.
After the compilation of the 3 forms, click on save the data and perform calculations.
It is possible to view discharge, energy and power tables and charts in reference to the
selected watercourse. The x axis is the progressive distance measured from the closure.
The tables and charts are represented in function of the structural length (distance
between the intake and the powerhouse). Thirteen classes of structural lengths are defined.
The default values are 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000, 3500, 4000, 4500
and 5000 m, but the user is able to select personal values during the project creation.
The following figure shows an example of creation of the produced energy table and chart:
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Figure 40 Example of chart of anthropic and natural flows
Figure 41 Chart example of the basin area function of the river progressive
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Figure 42 Chart example of the turbine flow
- 40 -
Figure 45 Chart example of the equivalent hours
Total costs
Capital Cost
- 41 -
Figure 46 Selection of investment costs
To see the graphics of each investment parameter, click on chart, the chart type selector
and eventually the structural lengths of your interest:
- 42 -
Figure 47 Chart investment costs, for each type of item
Other way is to represent the charts function of the structural length for each type of
component of the plant:
- 43 -
Figure 48 Chart investment costs, for each structural length
Other examples:
- 44 -
Figure 49 Example chart of the powerhouse and equipment costs
Figure 50 Example chart of the penstock costs for 50 and 200 m of structural length
- 45 -
Figure 51 Example chart of the channel and penstock costs for 50 m of structural length
- 46 -
5.6. Manage and maintenance costs, income, financial analysis
Click on Managing/Maintenance costs and a folder to visualize a table:
The (SR) Separate Rate and (GR) Global Rate are related to the type of rate applied. The
following parameters are able to graphic:
The charts and tables are represented in function of the structural length (distance
between the intake and the powerhouse). The default values are 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000,
1500, 2000, 2500, 3000, 3500, 4000, 4500 and 5000 m. The following figures are some
example of graphic results:
- 47 -
Figure 54 Example of Benefits chart
- 48 -
Figure 56 Example of Benefit/Costs chart
- 49 -
Figure 58 Example of Pay Back time chart
- 50 -
5.7. Results on GIS
VAPIDRO ASTE is able to visualize the results on GIS, as a map with a coloured scale.
Click on Graphic results on ArcGIS, then click on Graphic data, select the Type of data
charts and the Structural length of your interest.
The following figure shows the steps to obtain a chart on the GIS map:
Click on RUN to generate the selected map. Click on Save and Exit to quit to the main
VAPIDRO-ASTE window.
The user is able to represent in the map many types of results. The following figures are
some examples of result maps generated by the tool:
- 51 -
Figure 61 Example of benefit/cost map for 100 m of structural length
Other VAPIDRO-ASTE functionality regards the use of satellite background maps, using the
internet connection and the ARCGIS 10.0 skills.
To use the background map add key and choose Add Basemap
Then select the satellite map of reference, for example Bing Maps Hybrid and then Add.
- 52 -
Figure 62 Selection of a base map
Figure 63 Example of benefit/cost map for 100 m of structural length, with a satellite base
map
The user is able to choose many other parameters to perform results maps with different
backgrounds. The following are some examples:
- 53 -
Figure 64 Example of Net Present Value map for 2000 m of structural length
- 54 -
Figure 66 Example of Updated Performance Index map for 5000 m of structural length
The following figure shows the steps to generate the exported Excel file:
Warning: the export to excel could take several minutes, depending on your PC power, the
- 55 -
quantity of data and the selected parameters.
The next figure shows the list of parameters that can be exported:
Then click on EXPORT, and an excel file will be opened with the requested data:
- 56 -
Figure 69 Example of exported EXCEL file
Manual
Automatic
The manual process provides a tool to guide the user to ensure an optimized hydropower
exploitation of the selected river. The automatic optimization calculates the best hydropower
exploitation, considering the optimization of the financial and energy results.
The automatic optimization is based on the use of spline curves, to interpolate the
financial parameter every 50 m, whereas the exact values are calculated in each
progressive river for the structural lengths of 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500,
3000, 3500, 4000, 4500 and 5000 m.
The first combination, with the highest financial value, will determine the first-in-the-list
optimized hydropower plant. For the subsequent plants (with a smaller value of the
optimization parameter), the algorithm considers that the branch of river between the intake
and the restitution of the first plant, will not be available.
Click on manual and automatic procedure in the main screen to open optimization
windows:
- 57 -
Select the Optimization Parameter and the desired rate type. Then, click on Automatic
optimization and input the maximum number of hydropower plants to be optimized:
Then click OK, and a series of optimized plants will be showed. The following figure
represents the automatic optimization of the hydropower exploitation considering the B/C
parameter and 5 power plants:
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Figure 71 Hydropower exploitation automatic optimization example
Each power plant is numbered from the most to the less convenient according to the
optimization parameter selected.
In the central table, all the optimized plants with their data are shown.
In the other hand the Manual Optimization enables the user to locate each hydropower,
watching the financial parameter in function of the progressive chart (left) and function of
the structural length (right). To save one combination click on accepts current.
The following figure shows the B/C manual optimization with 5 hydropower plants:
- 59 -
Figure 72 Hydropower exploitation manual optimization example
Then, it is possible to load the saved configuration, create a new one, delete a saved
configuration, clear the blackboard or and export to excel.
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5.9.1. Presentation of the optimization results on GIS
It is possible to visualize on the GIS the optimized hydropower configuration. Click on
Tables/Charts in the main menu, Graphic results on ArcGIS. Then click on Graphics
optimization and select the configuration to represent on the map.
As shown in the figure, the plant intake is presented by a blue triangle, while the restitution
(powerhouse) is presented by a red square.
It is possible also to add a satellite base map as background, using the following command
as described before:
- 61 -
Figure 75 Visualization of a group of optimized plants with a satellite picture background
- 62 -
5.10. VAPIDRO Concentrated Hydropower plants
When creating a new project, it is possible to define the Power plant type concentrated,
without diversion or penstock.
The process continues as described before: input of the DEM, river, flows, withdrawals, etc.
One particular aspect of the concentrated hydropower plants is that the chart and table
parameter is the head and not the structural length: there are 12 head classes defined from
0.5 to 6.0 m.
- 63 -
Figure 78 Maximum installation power function of the head classes
The automatic optimization of the concentrated hydropower exploitation is similar than the
former case, but the chart on the right is presented with the fixed head in the x axis:
The concentrated plants are presented in the GIS map as points related to the river
progressive of the intake and restitution scheme.
- 65 -
6. References
Alterach J., Brasi O., Flamini B., Peviani M. (RSE) and Gilli L., Quaglia G. (Envitech)
Ricerca di Sistema, Valutazione della disponibilit idrica e del potenziale di producibilit
idroelettrica a scala nazionale e di bacino - Rapporto CESIRICERCA Prot. 7000597
(2006)
Alterach J., Davitti A., Peviani M. (RSE) SMART MINI IDRO strumento informatico per la
valutazione della fattibilit tecnico-economica di impianti mini idroelettrici ad acqua fluente
Rapporto CESIRICERCA Prot. 08001047 (29.02.2008)
Alterach J., Peviani M., Davitti A., Elli A. (RSE) A GIS integrated tool to evaluate the
residual potential hydropower production at watercourse scale - WWC- Montpellier Francia
1-4 sett 2008.
Alterach J., Peviani M., Davitti A., Vergata M. (RSE), Ciaccia G. (AEEG) and Fontini F.
(University of padova) Evaluation of the residual potential hydropower production in Italy
HIDROENERGIA 2008 (Bled Slovenia 11-13/6/2008)
ESHA - Report on small hydropower statistics: general overview of the last decade (1990-
2001) 36pp. Brussel, 2003
Peviani M., Alterach J., Brasi O., Maran S. (RSE), Evaluation of small scale hydro
electricity potential in Italy, (IAHR 2007 Venezia)
UNCEM Unione Nazionale Comuni Comunit Enti Montani Indagine sulle potenzialit di
produzione idroelettrica nelle aree montane di Cuneo, Torino e Biella
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Authors Contact
www.seehydropower.eu
Julio Alterach
Project Contact Julio.alterach@rse-web.it