ESTIMATION OF WATER AVAILABILITY AND POTENTIAL OF SMALL HYDROPOWER PLANTS

Abstract

Hydropower is currently the world's largest renewable source of electricity, accounting for 6% of worldwide energy supply or about 19% of the world's electricity. The main objective of the study is to know the maximum hydropower energy which can be generated from the given ten daily flows. In present research work the ten daily rainfall data of study area (NARMADA Catchment) was available and rainfall -runoff data of nearby site. Using this data estimated the average rainfall and runoff for the study area. Now this runoff data is used to determine the 90% dependable year with the help of rank analysis method. After determining the 90% dependable year drawn a flow duration curve for getting the ten daily energy potential these gives us the annual energy production capacity of hydropower plant at different capacity. Then using the optimization technique obtained the optimal installed capacity of hydropower plant determined for all cases