OPTIMAL SELECTION OF HYDRO TURBINE FOR A SHP PLANT

Abstract

Developing a small hydropower site is not a simple task. There are many aspects which have to be taken into consideration, covering many disciplines ranging from business, engineering, financial, legal and administration. These all will be necessary at the different development stages from, first- choosing a- site until the plant --.I- . . goes into operation. As small hydropower site are not identified as standardised. Every site has different site parameters. It is therefore cost for development of these sites will differ from site to site. Because of non-standardization of components of a SHP, cost becomes a critical issue. Under the present dissertation it is proposed to review to all the available design of SHP component and the components which can be standardized shall be identified. Based on these identified components a strategy shall be worked about to design a plan for optimal design of SHP plants. It is difficult to estimate the realistic project cost at the preliminary stage to make an investment decision. A number of investigators tried to establish the methodology for cost estimation of hydropower schemes lased on the existing project data. In low head small hydropower plants, the cost of the power house in civil works and the cost of the turbine in electromechanical works have been found to be significant. Hydro turbine for a site is considered to be a critical component, whose selection is further critical task. Selection of hydro turbine depends upon the site specification. Because selection of hydro turbine effect civil work. Keeping this in view, the present study has been carried out for optimal selection for a hydro turbine based on optimal cost of the plant. Considering a typical dam toe site having site specification as head of 20 m and capacity (power) 10000 KW. It is proposed to investigate the cost for three types of turbine namely tubular propeller, tubular Kaplan and vertical semi-Kaplan turbine. As the cost of SHP plant varies according to the selection of types of turbine, therefore under this study the overall cost of SHP plant for different types of turbine has been worked out. The cost of powerhouse building, cost of turbine, cost of generator and cost of auxiliary has been found different for different selection of turbine. It has been found that use of propeller tubular turbine has contributed minimum cost of plant, accordingly for the plant the turbine has been recommended.