Renewable Energy Principles

Tutorial 8

Micro-Hydro
1. The schematic of a micro-hydro power plant is shown in Figure 1.

Turbine

Figure 1

The pressure, cross-sectional area and the height above the turbine at the points
A,B,C,D and E are given in Table-1. The water discharge rate at all points is 0.2 m3/s.

Table 1
A B C D E
Pressure above atmosphere 0 0 343 686 0
(kN/m2)
Cross-sectional Area (m2) 1.0 1.0 0.2 0.2 0.0056
Height above Turbine (m) 100 90 45 0 0

a) Determine the net head and the power of water at each point.

b) Calculate the power efficiency of (i) channel (ii) penstock (iii) nozzle (iv) the
entire hydro system.

2. A hydro power system has a gross head of 120 m. The head lost due to penstock is
given by 4000Q 2  80Q where Q is the water flow rate in m3/s. Determine the
following.
 (a) optimum flow rate
(b) power output at optimum flow rate
(c) efficiency at optimum flow rate

3. The pressure gauge at a micro-hydro power house shows a reading of 700 kN/m. The 4-
jet Pelton wheel is having a diameter of 0.6 m. At rated water flow rate, the diameter of
each jet of water is 2 cm. The efficiency of the turbine at the rated speed of 625 rpm is
85%. The head lost in the nozzle can be neglected.
Determine
a) Rated water flow rate
b) Mechanical power output under rated condition
c) The torque-speed characteristic of the turbine under rated condition
d) If the water-flow rate is reduced to 80% of rated value, derive the new torque-
speed characteristic.