Quantifying the Operation and Availability of

Small Hydro Power Plants

Panagiotis Bourbourakis
PPC Renewables SA
3, Kapodistriou Str. PO 15343
Agia Paraskevi Greece

Introduction
For the safe and optimal operation of an industrial plant, man-machine cooperation is an essential precondition. The
aforementioned principle is of utmost importance for Renewable Energy Sources Power Plants, since the application
of reliable and valid monitoring methods leads to minimization of failures and to lifetime prolongment of the plant,
as well as to maximization of the availability and the expected profit.
The monitoring of operation of the Small Hydroelectric Power Plants of PPC Renewables S.A. (16 power plants and
76 W in total), is enabled through dedicated software, which is also android mobile phone operated. The analyzing
methodology combines data from the specifically developed software, from the scada software of the plants and
from the on-site personnel. All trips and out-of-order events are recorded on the basis of parameters such as date,
plant serial number, unit serial number, cause, etc. After archiving procedure, further process is done by
drawing up data sheets and tables, by making conclusions and by setting up the next necessary steps for preventing
future failure events and achieving optimization of hydro power plants operation.

1. Monitoring the Operation of the Hydro Power Plants.

The PanOpticum DPS dedicated software is feeded with data transmitted by on-site appliances (in each power
plant), via any available infrastructure (GPRS, satellite internet, etc). Thus we are enabled to real-time monitor the
active power, the grid circuit breaker status and the unit circuit breaker status on each hydro power plant.

Fig.1 Snapshot of the dedicated software, with all power plants in operation.

2. Quantifying the Availability of the Hydro Power Plants.

All trips occurring on each unit and each power plant are archived according to the following parameters:
Trip Monthly Serial Number (e.g. 4, 36, 65).
Date of occurrence (e.g. 13 August).
Trip Daily Serial Number (e.g. 4th trip for the 13th of August).
Small Hydro Power Plant of occurrence (e.g. SHPP Louros).
Trip Daily Serial Number for each SHPP (e.g. 5th trip for SHPP Papadia).
Unit Serial Number of each trip occurrence (e.g. 2nd trip on Unit 1).
Trip Cause (Mechanical Electrical Electronical Grid General - Operations).
Start Stop Duration of each trip.
After recording and archiving of the trips, processing takes place (drawing up charts, making conclusions, service
scheduling, etc). The availability analysis refers to July 2013, while the present methodology has been originally
applied for the last 2 years.
The following table includes the outage hours of each power plant and the occurring availability. The term specific
outage hours is introduced due to the reduction of the several plant units in the scale of each single power plant.
Outages due to non-human causes (e.g. insufficient river flow) are not included.

S/N

SHPP

Total Monthly
Outage Hours
(month of 31x24=744hr)

Specific Total Monthly

Outage Hours
(month of 31x24=744hr)

Monthly
Availability
(%)
96,75

Agia Varvara

24,18

24,18

Agios Ioannis

744,00

744,00

0,00

Almyros

511,18

511,18

31,29

Vermio

7,23

7,23

99,03

Gkiona

0,00

0,00

100,00

Glafkos

0,00

0,00

100,00

Louros

199,95

49,99

93,28

Makrochori

0,00

0,00

100,00

Oinoussa

0,00

0,00

100,00

10

Papadia

8,70

8,70

98,83

11

Smokovo

3,29

2,23

99,70

12

Stratos

31,62

17,22

97,69

13

Alatopetra

0,00

0,00

100,00

14

Vorino

3,17

3,17

99,57

15

Gitani

1,42

0,71

99,90

16

Eleoussa

20,97

10,48

98,59

1555,71

1379,09

87,17

Total

However, the above calculation method does not take into account the installed operating power capacity of each
power plant. Therefore, the term Specific Availability is introduced.

Agia Varvara

Monthly
Availability
(%)
96,75

0,9

0,012186865

Specific Monthly
Availability
(%)
1,18

Agios Ioannis

0,00

0,3

0,004062288

0,00

Almyros

31,29

0,3

0,004062288

0,13

Vermio

99,03

0,7

0,009478673

0,94

Gkiona

100,00

8,5

0,115098172

11,51

Glafkos

100,00

3,7

0,050101557

5,01

Louros

93,28

10,3

0,139471903

13,01

Makrochori

100,00

10,8

0,146242383

14,62

Oinoussa

100,00

1,5

0,020311442

2,03

10

Papadia

98,83

0,5

0,006770481

0,67

11

Smokovo

99,70

10,4

0,140825999

14,04

12

Stratos

97,69

6,3

0,085308057

8,33

13

Alatopetra

100,00

4,95

0,067027759

6,70

14

Vorino

99,57

3,9

0,052809749

5,26

15

Gitani

99,90

4,2

0,056872038

5,68

16

Eleoussa

98,59

6,6

0,089370345

8,81

87,17

73,85

97,93

S/N

SHPP

Total

Operating Power
(MW)

Weighting
Factor

As depicted above, the specific total availability rises up to 97,93%.

The specific outage hours for each power plant are depicted on the following table.
S/N

SHPP

Specific Total
Monthly
Outage Hours
(month of
31x24=744hr)

Weighting
Factor

Specific
Weighted
Total Monthly
Outage Hours

Specific Weighted
Outage Hours
Distribution
(%)

Agia Varvara

24,18

0,012186865

0,29

0,32

Agios Ioannis

744,00

0,004062288

3,02

3,26

Almyros

511,18

0,004062288

2,08

2,24

Vermio

7,23

0,009478673

0,07

0,07

Gkiona

0,00

0,115098172

0,00

0,00

Glafkos

0,00

0,050101557

0,00

0,00

Louros

49,99

0,139471903

6,97

7,52

Makrochori

0,00

0,146242383

0,00

0,00

Oinoussa

0,00

0,020311442

0,00

0,00

10

Papadia

8,70

0,006770481

0,06

0,06

11

Smokovo

2,23

0,140825999

0,31

0,34

12

Stratos

17,22

0,085308057

1,47

1,58

13

Alatopetra

0,00

0,067027759

0,00

0,00

14

Vorino

3,17

0,052809749

0,17

0,18

15

Gitani

0,71

0,056872038

0,04

0,04

16

Eleoussa

10,48

0,089370345

0,94

1,01

1379,09

15,42

16,63

Total

The following table shows the origination of the monthly outages.

Total Monthly
Outage Hours
(month of 31x24=744hr)
760,00

S/N

Technical
Origination

Outage Cause
(%)

Mechanical

Electrical

8,52

0,55

Electronical

1,97

0,13

General

5,60

0,36

Grid

21,72

1,40

Operations

757,90

48,72

Total

1555,71

100,00

48,85

The following chart shows the monthly trip frequency, i.e. the number of days (of July 2013), on the basis of the
number of the trips occurring on each day. As depicted, the monthly distribution tends to be normal.

Fig.2 Chart of the monthly trip frequency distribution

The following chart shows the monthly distribution for the daily outage hours, i.e. the total number of specific
outage hours for each day. As depicted, the monthly distribution tends to be inverse normal.

Fig.3 Chart of the daily outage hours distribution

It is to be noted that, for the creation of the above charts, the trip numbers and the outage hours for two (2) SHPPs
were excluded, since they were under reconstruction works and therefore temporarily out or operation.

3. Quantifying the Operation of the Hydro Power Plants.

The specific O&M Cost for each power plant has been calculated based on the contractual price for the O&M
personnel and the technical features of each plant (power capacity, annual energy output, years of operation).

Operational
Mean Annual Specific Annual Years of
Power Capacity Energy Output O&M Cost
Operation
(MW)
(MWh)
(/MWxMWh)
(yr)

Specific Annual Cost

and Years of
Operation
(/MWxMWh/yr)

S/N

SHPP

Agia Varvara

0,9

5.030

9,9

1,654

Agios Ioannis

0,3

350

0,0

60

0,000

Almyros

0,3

600

482,6

59

8,180

Vermio

0,7

4.660

131,9

60

2,198

Gkiona

8,5

38.020

1,3

26

0,052

Glafkos

3,7

11.010

10,9

16

0,682

Louros

10,3

44.280

1,5

55

0,028

Makrochori

10,8

33.780

1,2

21

0,056

Oinoussa

1,5

3.840

6,1

0,675

10

Papadia

0,5

2.270

39,6

13,216

11

Smokovo

10,4

11.150

0,2

0,054

12

Stratos

13

Alatopetra

14
15
16

Eleoussa

6,3

11.070

0,4

24

0,015

4,95

14.510

1,1

1,114

Vorino

4,1

25.120

1,7

0,283

Gitani

4,2

14.420

2,6

0,366

6,6

28.520

0,9

74,05

248.630,00

Total

0,181

stdev

0,70659

avg

0,61184

avg/stdev

0,866

As depicted above:
Despite the vast variation (manned/unmanned - automatic/manual operation, etc) of the operational status of the
power plants, a relative uniformity is to be observed at the Specific O&M Cost, excluding the extreme values
highlighted with yellow color. However, the quantification of quality characteristics for the above mentioned
operational status is not easily feasible.
Taking into account the years of operation of each power plant, the Specific Cost can be further developed. By
excluding one pair of extreme values at each end of the distribution (as highlighted with green color), it is to be
observed that the standard deviation (0.70659) of the values varies very little compared to the average
(0.61184), i.e. the average is at the 86.6% of the standard deviation. Thus there is a relatively great uniformity at
the Specific Cost (/MWxMWh/yr) of the power plants.

The Author
Panagiotis Bourbourakis graduated in the Department of Mechanical & Aeronautical Engineering of the Technological
University of Patras and attended post-graduate courses in Energy and Environment (NTUA). He is currently working for the
Hydroelectric Power Department of PPC Renewables SA, as head of Operation & Maintenance, and as Technical Advisor for the
construction, erection and commissioning of hydro power plants.