COST EFFECTIVE DESIGN OF THE LOW HEAD SMALL HYDRO PROSECT

Abstract

Most of the energy we use today comes from non-renewable energy sources like coal, oil, fossil fuels etc. These sources are being consumed much rapidly than they are created. Also use of such resources leads to pollution and environmental issues. Because our world depends on energy, we need to use sources of energy that will last forever; these sources are called renewable sources where occur repeatedly in nature. Renewable energy resources are solar, wind, biomass and small hydro power (SHP), tidal, geothermal. Among renewable sources small hydro power is one of the most widely used source of electricity generation in the world. With rapidly depleting fossil fuels and increasing power demand, more attention is concentrating towards hydro power, particularly smaller sites, under low head which are untapped till now. As the cost of construction is increasing rapidly, special attention has to be given to the development in economically viable manner. The main components of SHP are civil works and electromechanical works. Most of the components are common in different type of schemes. Thus the present study is planned with following aspects i. Study of various components of low head small hydro power schemes. ii. Carried out sizing of various components under civil works and selection of electro mechanical equipment for different schemes. iii. Development of software for determining the sizes of components. iv. Analysis of cost of different components for developments of cost correlation in order to determine the total installation cost. v. Development of software for cost computation of power house building having different types of layouts. vi. Hydraulic design of different types of spillway, generation of profile of spillways and cost calculation of various types of spillways.