A REPORT OF TECHNICAL VISIT

at

Paithan hydro-electric power plant

Class : TE (Civil)

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

PADMASHRI DR. VITHALRAO VIKHE PATIL COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING,
AHMEDNAGAR.
University of Pune
2014-15

Venue : Paithan Hydro Power Station

Date : 19th and 20th September 2014
Class : T.E. Civil (Div-A & B)
Department of Civil Engineering of Padmashree Dr. Vithalrao Vikhe Patil College of Engineering, Vilad
Ghat, Ahmednagar had organized two day educational visit to Paithan Hydro Power Station near
Jayakwadi Dam, Paithan Dist.-Aurangabad, Maharashtra on 19 th and 20th September 2014 for T.E. Civil
Engineering students Div-A and B along with 4 staff members each day to study different aspects of
Hydroelectric power generation and discharge through spillway.
Visit was organized with the prior permission and under guidance of honorable Dr. H.N.Kudal Sir
(Principal, PDVVPCOE), Prof. U.R.Kawade (Head of Civil Engg Dept), Prof. M.P. Wagh (Visit Coordinator), Asst. Exec. Er. Amol Deshpande (Engineer from Paithan HPS), Er Y.R.Hasnale from
Jayakwadi Dam Site helped a lot to take permission of visit from regional office of Irrigation Department.
Er. Unmesh Patil (Dy.Executive Engineer, Paithan Hydro power Project, Paithan, Dist:- Aurangabad)
Explained the various aspects of hydro power plant and had briefed the history of the project.
Our teachers Prof. A.A.Sengupta, Prof. P.K.Bhandari, Prof. N.M.Mulik, Prof. D.S.Pathare, Prof.
S.L.Asawa, Prof. Ms. S.A.Zanje & Prof. Mrs. A.A.Waghmare took hard efforts in planning and arranging
this highly successful visit.
Students of T.E. Civil took the initiative & under the continuous guidance of our teachers, made the visit a
grand success.
Students left the college for visit on 19 th September (Div-A) as well as on 20 th September (Div-B) at 9:30
am and did breakfast on the way. We reached Paithan at 01:00pm had our lunch and then we moved
towards Jayakwadi Dam and reached at 02.00 PM.

The Jayakwadi project is one of the largest irrigation projects in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is a
multipurpose project. The water is used mainly to irrigate agricultural land in the drought
prone Marathwada region of the state. It also provides water for drinking and industrial usage to nearby
towns and villages and to the municipalities and industrial areas ofAurangabad and Jalna district.
It is located on Godavari river at the site of Jayakwadi village in Paithan taluka of Aurangabad district
in Maharashtra state of India.
The foundation of the dam was laid by the then Prime minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri on 18
October 1965. The dam was inaugurated on 24 February 1976 by the then Prime minister Indira
Gandhi. The chief engineer of this project was Mr. A.A.A. Siddiqui.
Jayakwadi is one of the largest earthern dams in Asia. Its height is approx 41.30 m and length of 9,998 m
(10 km approx) with total storage capacity 2,909 Mm & effective live storage capacity is 2,171 Mm.
The total catchment area of dam is 21,750 km. There are total 27 water gates for the Dam.
In the year 2009 it has entered in 35th year of its life. It has in its lifetime overflowed only 17 times. On
10 August 2006 highest discharge of 250000 ft/s was recorded.
Under the scheme of Paithan hydro electric project, a 12 MW reversible pump turbine has been installed
in the surface power house at the foot of Jayakwadi Irrigation Dam. Annual generation is about 21 MUS.
The generating unit was commissioned in November 1984 for conventional operation. On completion of
downstream weir for storage of water, the unit was commissioned for pumping mode in May 1987. The
power station has been handed over to Maharashtra State Electricity Generation Co. (Previously
Maharashtra State Electricity Board) in August 1987 for operation and maintenance.

General Schematic diagram of a hydro power plant

Jaikwadi Dam

Schematic Image of Francis Turbine

Stages of construction of turbine

Stages of construction of Turbine

SALIENT FEATURES OF PROJECT

Name of the
Irrigation Project
Type of project
Engineering Type of
Project

Jayakwadi Stage - I
Major Irrigation Project
Major
Storage

Purpose of Project

Irrigation

Name of the River

Godavari

Status

Completed

State

Maharashtra

Inter-Basin Project
Basin

No
Godavari

Year of Start
Approved by
Planning
commission (Year)
Approved Cost by
Planning
Commission (Rs. in
Crore)
Culturable
Command Area
(CCA) (Th ha)

183.64

Gross Command
Area (GCA) (Th ha)

204.05

Potential Utilized
(Th ha)

1976
1965

38.46

18.5

Net Irrigated
Area(NIA) (Th ha)

141.64

District/s Benefitted

Aurangabad

Ultimate Irrigation
Potential (Th ha)

126.53

Year of
Commissioning :

1984

No. of Unit X
Capacity

1 X 12000 kW

Design Discharge :

49.98 Cumecs

Gross Head :

32.3 m

Net Head :

28.23 m

Type of Project :

Dam Toe Based

Type of Diversion :

Penstock Inlet

Catchment Area :

21750 Sq km

Turbine Type :

Francis

Turbine
Manufacturer :

Fuzi

Coupling :

Direct

Alignment :

Vertical

Type of Generator :
Generator
Manufacturer :

Synchronous
Fuji

Generator Voltage :

11 kV

Type of Governor :

Electromechanical

Power Evacuation
Level :

132 kV

SubStation Location

Paithan

SubStation Distance

10 km

The Francis turbine is a type of water turbine that was developed by James B. Francis. It is an inwardflow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow concepts.
Francis turbines are the most common water turbine in use today. They operate in a water head from 40 to
600 m and are primarily used for electrical power production. The generators which most often use this
type of turbine, have a power output which generally ranges just a few kilowatts up to 800 MW,
though mini-hydro installations may be lower. Penstock (input pipes) diameters are between 0.91 and
10.06 metres. The speed range of the turbine is from 83 to 1000 rpm. Wicket gates around the outside of
the turbine's rotating runner control the rate of water flow through the turbine for different power
production rates. Francis turbines are almost always mounted with the shaft vertical to keep water away
from the attached generator and to facilitate installation and maintenance access to it and the turbine.

Information regarding the francis turbine in the plant

Figure shows the vertical shaft of the francis turbine

Components:
A Francis turbine consists of the following main parts:
Spiral Casing: The spiral casing around the runner of the turbine is known as the volute casing or scroll
case. All throughout its length, it has numerous openings at regular intervals to allow the working fluid to
impound on the blades of the runner. These openings convert the pressure energy of the fluid into
momentum energy just before the fluid impound on the blades to maintain a constant flow rate despite the
fact that numerous openings have been provided for the fluid to gain entry to the blades,the crosssectional area of this casing decreases uniformly along the circumference.
Guide or Stay Vanes: The primary function of the guide or stay vanes is to convert the pressure energy of
the fluid into the momentum energy. It also serves to direct the flow at design angles to the runner blades.
Runner Blades:Runner blades are the heart of any turbine as these are the centers where the fluid strikes
and the tangential force of the impact causes the shaft of the turbine to rotate and hence electricity is
produced. In this part one has to be very careful about the blade angles at inlet and outlet as these are the
major parameters affecting the power production.
Draft tube: The draft tube is a conduit which connects the runner exit to the tail race where the water is
being finally discharged from the turbine. The primary function of the draft tube is to reduce the velocity

of the discharged water to minimize the loss of kinetic energy at the outlet. This permits the turbine to be
set above the tail water without any appreciable drop of available head.
Theory of operation :The Francis turbine is a type of reaction turbine, a category of turbine in which the
working fluid comes to the turbine under immense pressure and the energy is extracted by the turbine
blades from the working fluid. A part of the energy is given up by the fluid because of pressure changes
occurring in the blades of the turbine, quantified by the expression of Degree of reaction, while the
remaining part of the energy is extracted by the volute casing of the turbine. At the exit, water acts on the
spinning cup-shaped runner features, leaving at low velocity and low swirl with very
little kinetic or potential energy left. The turbine's exit tube is shaped to help decelerate the water flow
and recover the pressure.
Penstock : A penstock is a sluice or gate or intake structure that controls water flow, or an enclosed pipe
that delivers water to hydro turbines and sewerage systems. Penstocks for hydroelectric installations are
normally equipped with a gate system and a surge tank. Flow is regulated by turbine operation and is nil
when turbines are not in service. Penstocks, particularly where utilized in polluted water systems, need to
be maintained by hot water washing, manual cleaning, antifouling coatings, and desiccation. The term is
also used in irrigation dams to refer to the channels leading to and from high-pressure sluice gates.
Penstocks are also used in mine tailings dam construction. The penstock is usually situated fairly close to
the center of the tailings dam and built up using penstock rings. These control the water level, letting
the slimes settle out of the water. This water is then piped under the tailings dam back to the plant via a
penstock pipeline.
Draft Tubes
The water after working on the turbine, imparts its energy to the vanes and runner, thereby reducing its
pressure less than that of atmospheric pressure (Vacuum). As the water flows from higher pressure to
lower pressure, it cannot come out of the turbine and hence a divergent tube is connected to the end of the
turbine.
Draft tube is a divergent tube one end of which is connected to the outlet of the turbine and other end is
immersed well below the tailrace (Water level). The major function of the draft tube is to increase the
pressure from the inlet to outlet of the draft tube as it flows through it and hence increase it more than
atmospheric pressure. The other function is to safely discharge the water that has worked on the turbine to
tailrace.
Depending on the shape and alignment, draft tubes are classified as follows:
Vertical divergent draft tube: The draft tube has the shape of a frustum of a cone. This is generally
provided for low specific speed. The cone angle is not to exceed 8 0. For greater value of the cone angle it
is seen that the flowing body of water may not touch the sides of the draft tube (Leaving the boundary).
This will lead to the eddy formation bringing down the efficiency of the draft tube.

Moodys draft tube or hydracone: This is a bell mouthed draft tube or a conical tube with a solid
conical central core The whirl of discharged water is very much reduced in this arrangement.

Elbow draft tube: This draft tube affords to discharge the water horizontally to the tail race.
Elbow draft tube with circular inlet and rectangular outlet: This is a further improvement of the simple
elbow draft tube. In all the types mentioned above, the outlet of the draft tube should be situated below
the tail water level.

Figure of Draft tube below the turbine for exit of used water

HYDRO-TURBINE GOVERNING SYSTEM

Introduction
Governor control system for Hydro Turbines is basically a feed back control system
which senses the speed and power of the generating unit or the water level of the
forebay of the hydroelectric installation etc. and takes control action for operating
the discharge/load controlling devices in accordance with the deviation of actual set
point from the reference point.
Governor control system of all units suitable for isolated operation are a feed back
control system that controls the speed and power output of the hydroelectric
turbine. Water level controllers can be used for grid connected units. Governing
system comprises of following sections.
a) Control section
b) Mechanical hydraulic Actuation section

The control section may be mechanical; analogue electronic or digital. Actuator can
be hydraulic controlled, mechanical (motor) or load actuator. Load actuator are used
in micro hydel range; mechanical (motor operated) may be used say upto 1000 kW
unit size. Hydro actuator are mostly used.

Type of Governor Control Section

Mechanical Controller
Electro-Hydraulic Governor Analogue Electronics
Electro Hydraulic Governor Digital Governors

Present day trend is to use digital governing control system in hydroelectric units.
The major advantages of microprocessor based system over the earlier analogue
governors (based on solid state electronic circuitry) are higher reliability, self
diagnostic feature, modular design, flexibility of changing control functions via
software, stability of set parameters, reduced wiring and easy remote control
through optical fibre cables. Microprocessor based governor control system are
capable of carrying out the following
control functions in addition to speed control during idle run , operating in isolated
grid interconnected operation and islanding operation.
Control the power output depending on variation in grid frequency i.e. load
frequency control
Joint power control of a number of generating units in a power station
Power control as per water levels in Fore-bay and/or Tail-race
Automatic Starting / Stopping by single command
Fast response to transient conditions
Control from remote place Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA)

Control and governing room

Transformer for electricity generation

Finally the visit ended at nearly 6:30 p.m in the evening. We were very much thankful to the engineers
and their support staff for their kind co-ordination and making this visit a grand success.
After the site visit then we went to the near by garden called as the Dyaneshwar Udyan. The garden is
named after the name of great saint, Sant Dnyaneshwar. Dnyaneshwar Udyan is one of the largest
gardens in Maharashtra resembling the Brindavan Gardens of Mysore. It is spread over 125 hectares and
is situated on the banks of Nathsagar Lake formed due to Jayakwadi Dam. It is located near the town
of Paithan which is 40 km south of Aurangabad.
After all the huss and buss the troop left Paithan at 08:30 pm after taking the dinner to reach back to our
PDVVPCOE Campus. We reached in Campus at 11:30 pm.