PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF HYDRO TURBINES IN FIELD: A CASE STUDY OF BRUA HYDRO POWER PLANT

Abstract

One of the basic components of any hydropower plant is hydro turbine. Model test studies are performed before installation of hydro turbines. Many a times, the efficiency of the hydro-turbine gets reduced with the aging of the turbine and reduced efficiency of various associated components. Hence, its actual performance is evaluated in the field. In the present dissertation work, an attempt has been made to study the performance of various components of a hydropower station. The performance of hydro turbine, which is the core component of any hydropower plant, is discussed in detail. Finally, the approach for performance evaluation of hydro turbine in the field has been discussed and presented in the dissertation. As there is no standard method available to evaluate the overall performance of hydroelectric generating units, several new concepts for evaluating the performance of hydroelectric generating units, such as ideal performance, reachable performance, operational performance, overall efficiency, index of efficiency maintenance, index of operational efficiency, have been defined and established. In this study, absolute efficiency method has been adopted for performance evaluation of hydro turbine. Performance tests are carried out for acceptance of new hydroelectric units for the grant of subsidy. The standard IEC 41 provides the detail guidelines for the measurement of different parameters used for the evaluation of hydro turbines. The performance evaluation of Brua Small Hydropower Plant at Kinnaur district, Himachal Pradesh has been carried out and results are discussed and presented in the dissertation. The performance evaluation of other hydro turbines can be attempted on similar lines.