Abstract:
India's hydropower potential is of the order 84044MW at 60% load factor. Out of this about 24000 MW has been harnessed so far. Because of high capital cost long gestation period and various environmental and rehabilitation issues involved in developing large hydro emphasis has been shifted to development of small hydro as an alternative. Small hydro plant offers several advantages in today's energy development scenario. It has little or no adverse environmental impact on ecology. Ideally a small hydro may serve other purposes in addition to generation of power such as water supply, irrigation and recreation to the people living in rural areas. The population in rural areas particularly in the hilly regions of The Himalayas are in need of electrical energy for their sustainability and there is no better option other than small hydro which is economically viable. India has a sizable potential for establishing small hydro stations of the order 10,000 to 15000 MW out of which more than 50% exists in hilly regions of Himalayas and about 5000 MW can be harnessed from existing canal falls .The small hydropower technology is proven and simple. It involves relatively simple and small civil structures for harnessing small power generation. In order to make these schemes techno-economically viable the design of civil structures should be such that the total cost of power plant is less. The power generation and control equipments should also be standardized to make the schemes less costs.
Keeping economic considerations in view elaborate works of diversion structures, desilting arrangements, water conductor systems etc are not advisable in small hydropower projects. So in this study an attempt has been made to develop cost-effective hydraulic design of civil structures involved in small hydro plants. To achieve this aim prevailing design practices have been critically studied/reviewed with reference to the proposed power plant on river Asiganga a tributary of Bhagirathi in Uttarkashi District of Uttaranchal state.
