Final Year Project

Optimization and Design of

Micro Hydro Power Plant

Introduction

Recent concerns over global warming and an over reliance on fossil

fuels have led to an increased political, academic and public interest in

renewable energy. Three viable areas of renewable energy have emerged-

solar power, wind power and hydropower. Because of small energy extraction

from wind and high cost of solar cells using as a renewable energy source,

it’s the hydro-power energy which can be a most effective renewable source

in coming future.

Hydro-power production can be carried out using Turbines and

waterwheels. Turbines need extensive potential energy which means an

appreciable head is needed to produce power while using turbines. On the

other hand waterwheels don’t need any head requirement and it’s the

flowing water kinetic energy used by waterwheels to produce power, low head

and flow requirements, ease in fabrication and relatively low cost which

excels them from turbines. These are especially advantageous relevant to

small residential projects where the long payback period of turbines is

prohibitive and that is the reason why hydropower production using

waterwheel has become an important source of renewable energy these days.

A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of free-flowing

or falling water into useful forms of power. A water wheel consists of a

large wooden or metal wheel, with a number of blades or buckets arranged on

the outside rim forming the driving surface. Most commonly, the wheel is

mounted vertically on a horizontal axle, but the tub or Norse wheel is

mounted horizontally on a vertical shaft. Vertical wheels can transmit

power either through the axle or via a ring gear and typically drive belts

or gears; horizontal wheels usually directly drive their load.

Waterwheel is a sort of Pelton wheel turbine equipped with blades and

operated by the flowing water. The wheel is to be seated on an open small

river where there is no head difference and the flow velocity is

approximately 1ms-1.

There are different types of water wheel which are being used

throughout the world.

Types of water wheel:

Horizontal wheel

Undershot wheel

Breastshot wheel

Final Year Project

Overshot wheel

Backshot wheel

Hydraulic wheel

Historical Perspective

In the 1970 the ministry of water and power installed several MHP systems cost

ranging from US$5000-6000/kW along conventional lines. The appropriate technology

development organization (ATDO) has installed MHP systems in the villages in the

mountains areas of Swat, Dir, and Kaghan district in KhyberPakhtunKhawa, Gilgit and in

northern areas of Pakistan. The very first plants of power of 3kW and 12.5kW respectively

were installed in 1975 inQadirnagar, Buner and LioniShangla. After that 58 MHP plant were

installed with technical and machinery support of PCAT to different communities. All

installed MHP plants were runoff river type that mean that in these plants the water is used

at a rate no greater than that which run downs the river. Till 1999 the project electrified

11,550 household due to the installed 228 MHP plants of 3MW total power. In 1982 on the

base of Aga khan rural support program (AKRSP) for village organizations 28 micro-hydro

power systems were installed, 6 micro-hydro power plant were designed and installed in the

northern Pakistan i.e. Gilgit.

During the last years Pakistan council of appropriate technology (PCAT) installed

more than 200 systems with a total power of around 3MW. The turbine were designed and

manufactured in Pakistan whereas the generators were imported from China.

Following figures depict some of the previous Work on Micro-hydro Power plant:

Final Year Project

Need Analysis Energy is considered to be life line of any economy and most vital instrument of

socioeconomic development of a country. Energy is pivotal in running machinery in factories

and industrial units, for lighting our cities and powering our vehicles etc. There has been an

enormous increase in the demand of energy as a result of industrial development and

population growth, in comparison to enhancement in energy production. Supply of energy is,

therefore, far less than the actual demand, resultantly crisis has emerged. An energy crisis can

be defined as any great bottleneck (or price rise) in the supply of energy resources to an

economy.

Conclusion: Energy Crisis has, more or less, plagued all sectors of Pakistan’s machinery ranging

from economy to industry, agriculture to social life, inflation to poverty and it is hampering

national progress in a drastic manner. Nonetheless, menace of energy crisis can be

overwhelmed by government through making effective policies and its proactive

implementation. Simultaneously, it is the responsibility of us, the people of Pakistan, to

utilize the available energy astutely and wisely to play our due role for progress of the

country.

Project Objectives

To study the literature of micro-hydro power plant.

To study the literature of water wheels.

Analytical calculations of power generated from water flow.

Final Year Project

To design and optimize water wheel and catamaran.

To check the strength of structure using ANSYS.