Introduction

Hydro electric power?

 Hydroelectric power comes from flowing water
 Water, when it is falling by the force of gravity, can be used to
turn turbines and generators that produce electricity.
 Global scenario
 The worldwide installed capacity of commissioned hydropower
plants rose to 1,267 gigawatts (GW) in 2017, according to the
flagship report of the International Hydropower Association
(IHA). Some 21.9 GW of capacity was added including 3.2 GW of
pumped storage, bringing global pumped storage capacity to 153
GW.
 A record 4,185 terawatt hours (TWh) in electricity was generated
from hydropower in 2017, avoiding up to 4 billion tonnes of
greenhouse gases as well as harmful pollutants.
 It also avoided 148 million tonnes of air polluting particulates, 62
million tonnes of sulphur dioxide, and 8 million tonnes of
nitrogen oxide from being emitted.
 Hydropower’s median emissions intensity to be just 18.5 gCO2-
eq/kWh.
Global scenario
Indian Scenario
 In the current scenario Installed hydro power plant capacity of
India is around 45,399 MW. (As on 31.05.2019)
 The advantages of investing in hydro power projects is that it
makes use of renewable energy.
 The power plants have a long life time.
 They are more efficient than thermal plants and storage based
systems can cater to irrigation, drinking water, navigation
needs too.
 In India small hydro projects are very successful too. Their
maximum capacity is around 25 MW.
 Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has created
a database of potential sites of small hydro and 6,474 potential
sites with an aggregate capacity of 19,749.44 MW for projects
up to 25 MW capacity have been identified.
 Installed capacity of SHP in India as on 31.03.2019
4,593.15 MW
 Working principle
 In hydroelectric power plants the potential energy of
water due to its high location is converted into
electrical energy.
 The total power generation capacity of the
hydroelectric power plants depends on the head of
water and volume of water flowing towards the water
turbine.
 Principle
 The water flowing in the river possesses two type of energy:
 the kinetic energy due to flow of water
 potential energy due to the height of water
 Total power that can be generated from water in
hydroelectric power plant due to its height is given
P=r h g
 where
p- is the power produced in watt
r -is the rate of flow of water in m3/s
h- height of water which is measured in meter
 Factor affecting power
generation
 Generally the maximum height of reservoir of water is fixed
by natural factors like the height of river bed, the amount
of water and other environmental factors.

 But the location of the power generation unit can

be adjusted as per the total amount of power that is to be
generated. Hence it is constructed at levels lower than
ground level so as to get the maximum head of water.

 The total flow rate of water can be adjusted through the

pen stock as per the requirements.
Hydro power plant types
 Classification
 Based on head
 Low < 30 m
 Medium 30 – 300 m
 Heigh > 300 m
 Based on capacity
 Large > 100 MW
 Medium >25 -100 MW
 Small 1 – 25 MW
 Mini 100 kW – 1 Mw
 Micro 5 – 100 kW
 Pico < 5 kW
Classification
Principle
Pumped storage functions
 Pumped storage types
 Pure pumped storage: no significant Natural
Cumulative flows (NCF) into the upper reservoir (NCF
permits a utilisation period of the Maximum Electrical
Capacity [MEC] in the turbine mode less than 250
hours/year
 Mixed pumped storage: significant NCF permits a
utilisation period of MEC in the turbine mode ≥ 250
hrs/yr
 Pumped storage to supplement hydro power plant
 Under ground
 Turbine selection
 Factors influencing turbine selection
 Specific speed
 Rotational speed
 Efficiency
 Part load operation
 Cavitations
 Deposition of turbine shaft
 Available head and its fluctuation
 Water quality
 Specific speed
 High specific speed is essential where the head is low
and output is large, because otherwise the rotational
speed will be low
 On the other hand there is practically no need of
choosing a high value of specific speed for high
installations, because even with low specific speed
high rotational speed can be attained with medium
capacity plants.
Specific speed
 Specific speed for various turbine
 Impulse turbines have the lowest ns values, typically
ranging from 1 to 10.
 Pelton wheel - around 4
 Francis turbines - 10 to 100
 Kaplan turbines - 100 or more
 Rotational speed
 Rotational speed depends upon specific speed.
 Also the rotational speed of an electrical generator
with which the turbine is to be directly coupled
depends on the frequency and number of pair of poles.
 The value of specific speed adopted should be such
that it will give the synchronous speed of the
generator.
 Efficiency
 The efficiency selected should be such that it gives the
highest overall efficiency of various conditions.
 Part load operation
 In general the efficiency at part loads and overloads is
less than that with rated (design) parameters. For the
sake of economy the turbine should always run with
maximum possible efficiency to get more revenue.

When the turbine has to run at part or overload

conditions Deriaz turbine is employed. Similarly, for
low heads, Kaplan turbine will be useful for such
purposes in place of propeller turbine.
 Cavitations
 The installation of water turbines of reaction type over
the tailrace is effected by cavitations.
 The critical values of cavitations indices must be
obtained to see that the turbine works in safe zone.
 Such values of cavitations indices also affect the
design of turbine, especially of Kaplan, propeller and
bulb types.
 Deposition of turbine shaft
 Experience has shown that the vertical shaft
arrangement is better for large-sized reaction turbines,
therefore, it is almost universally adopted, whereas, in
case of large size impulse turbines, horizontal shaft
arrangement is preferable.
 Available head and its fluctuation
 Very high (350m and above): for heads greater than 350m, Pelton Turbine is
generally employed and practically there is no any choice except in very special
cases.

 High heads (150 m to 350 m): in this range either Pelton or Francis turbine may
employ. For higher specific needs Francis turbine is more compact and
economical than the Pelton turbine that for the same working conditions
would have to be much bigger and rather cumbersome.

 Medium heads (60 m to 150 m): a Francis turbine is usually employed in this
range. Whether a high or low specific speed would be used depends on the
selection of the speed.

 Low heads (below 60m): between 30m to 60m both Kaplan and Francis
turbines may be used. Francis is more expensive but yields higher efficiency at
part loads and over loads. It is therefore preferable for variable loads. Kaplan
turbine is generally employed less than 30m. Propeller turbines are however,
commonly used for heads up to 15m. They are adopted only when there is
practically no load variation.
 Water quality
 Quality of water is more crucial for the reactive turbine
the in reaction turbines. Reactive turbine may undergo
for rapid wear in high head reactive turbines.
 Pumped hydro
 PHES is the only proven large scale(>100 MW) energy
storage schemes for power system operation.
 Worldwide, there are more than 300 installations with
total capacity of 127 GW.
 The first pumped storage plant of India was commissioned
in 1980– 1985 (Nagarjuna sagar Pumped Storage Plant).
 At present, 11 pumped storage schemes with an installed
capacity of 4804 MW are functioning in the country and
another 1000MW capacity plant is under construction.
 The Central Electricity Authority has identified 56
potential sites suitable for the development of pumped
storage schemes with a installed capacityof 94,000MW.
 1. Conventional hydro would usually require
considerable water storage and thus larger reservoirs
→ Environmental issues: use of land, hydro peaking
 NGPs can only change load very slowly and pumped
storage plants can be used to absorb their output at
night.
 The maintenance costs of certain types of gas-fired
power stations (GFPs) increase sharply if they are
forced to reduce load at night
 GFPs also benefit from storage plant attached to the
grid
 Oil and coal-fired stations can be operated closer to
their optimum efficiency (and thus reduced gaseous
emissions)
Indian installed capacity
Indian potential
 Water Turbines
 Water flowing from the penstock is allowed to enter the power
generation unit, which houses the turbine and the generator. When
water falls on the blades of the turbine the kinetic and potential energy
of water is converted into the rotational motion of the blades of the
turbine. The rotating blades causes the shaft of the turbine to also
rotate. The turbine shaft is enclosed inside the generator. In most
hydroelectric power plants there is more than one power generation
unit.
 There is large difference in height between the level of turbine and
level of water in the reservoir. This difference in height, also known as
the head of water, decides the total amount of power that can be
generated in the hydroelectric power plant.
 There are various types of water turbines such as Kaplan turbine,
Francis turbine, Pelton wheels etc. The type of turbine used in the
hydroelectric power plant depends on the height of the reservoir,
quantity of water and the total power generation capacity.
Impulse Turbines
Reaction Turbines
Pelton Turbines
Francis Turbines
kaplan Turbines