ESTIMATION OF WATER AVAILABILITY & 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 work ten daily rainfall data of study area was available and rainfall -runoff data of nearby site. Using this data was the average rainfall and runoff for the study area estimated this runoff data is used to determine the 90% dependable year with the help of rank analysis method. After determining the 90% dependable year a flow duration curve for getting the ten daily energy potential was drawn. This gives us the annual energy production capacity of hydropower plant at different capacity. Then using the optimization technique was optimal installed capacity of hydropower plant determined for obtained From the financial analysis it is concluded that the project is financially viable.