ALPHA BREATHING

EVOCATION
EVOCATION
 EVOCATION

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 GENERAL OBJECTIVE
• To understand the advantages, disadvantages ,
basic terminologies and parts of hydro power
plant.
 Specific objective
• List the advantages and disadvantages of
hydro power plant.(E,T)
• Recall the basic terminologies of hydro power
plant.(S,E)
• Explain the parts of hydro electric power
plant.(E,T)
 Specific objective 1
• List the advantages and disadvantages of
hydro power plant.(E,T)
 Advantages
• The useful life of a hydro electric plant is around
50 years as compared to around 25-30 years for a
steam station.
• The hydro plants do not require any fuel.
• There are no standby losses in hydro plants. They
can be run up and synchronized in a few minutes.
• Hydro plants are more robust as compared to
steam plants.
 Advantages
• The maintenance cost of hydro plants is very low
as compared to steam plants.
• Efficiency of hydro plants does not reduce with
age.
• Generation of electric energy through hydro
plants leads to conservation of coal and other
fuels.
• Transport bottle-necks are likely to render thermal
plants idle for long periods. Hydro plants are free
from such bottle-necks.
 Advantages
• The operating personnel required for hydro plants
are smaller in number
• Hydro projects are generally multipurpose
projects.
• Hydro plants are free from air pollution due to
smoke and exhaust gases.
• Hydro plants are located in remote areas where
land costs are low.
 Disadvantages
• The capital cost per kW of hydro plants is
considerably higher than that of steam plants.
• Hydro power generation is dependent on availability
of water.
• The firm capacity of hydro plants is low and needs to
be backed up by steam plants.
• They take a considerably long time for completion.
• Hydro plant reservoir submerges huge areas, uproots
large population and creates social and other
problems.
 Specific Objective 2
• Recall the basic terminologies of hydro power
plant.(S,E)
 Water power

• Hydro electric projects harness water power for

generation of electric energy. When water drops through
a height, its energy is able to rotate turbines which are
coupled to alternators. The electric power, P is given by
• P=735.5/75 QH ɳ kilowatts
Where Q = Discharge, m3/sec
H = Water head, m
ɳ = overall efficiency of turbine alternator set
• India has an hydel potential of 600 billion units of firm
annual energy and 85000 MW firm hydel power at 60%
load factor. Only about 23% of this has been exploited so
far.
 Hydrology
Run off
• Only a small part of rainfall can be used for
power generation.
• A significant part of rain water evaporates,
another part seeps into soil and forms the
underground storage and some portion is taken
up by the vegetation.
• The remaining water flows on the ground
surface of the catchment area to form the stream
and is known as run off.
 Run off
• Investigations of run-off form the first phase in the
planning of a hydro project.
• The factors affecting run off are rainfall pattern,
geology of the area, shape and size of catchment area,
the topography and nature of soil in the catchment
area, amount of vegetation and weather conditions in
the catchment area.
 Stream flow
• Knowledge of the quantity of water flowing in the
stream and its variation with time over a period of
many years is necessary to estimate the available
energy.
 Stream flow
From the estimates of stream flow, the following
estimates can be prepared.
• Average annual energy available
• Minimum annual energy available and firm
capacity
• Additional energy and increase in storage capacity
possible with a storage reservoir.
• Minimum daily output without storage
• Spillway capacity.
• Capacity of flood control reservoir
 Stream flow
• The stream flow measurements are generally done by
stream gauging at site and expressed in m3/sec.
• The investigations over a long period, say 20 years,
are necessary to cover the minimum flow and
maximum flow conditions.
• A factor of safety is also applied to the results to
cover the inaccuracies of measurement and
unforeseen circumstances.
• The minimum flow and the storage fix the amount of
primary power available.
 Stream flow
• Primary power is that capacity of hydro plant which
is available at all times when power is needed.
• The additional power available during high water
flow is called secondary power.
• The maximum flow gives an estimation of floods and
helps in the design of spillway.
• The estimation of average flow helps in deciding the
capacity of the power plant.
 Hydrograph
Hydrograph shows the variation of stream flow in m3/sec
with time for a particular river site. The time may be
hour, week, month or year. It is similar to the
chronological load curve.
The hydrograph provides the following information
• The discharge at any time during the period under
consideration
• The maximum and minimum run off during the period
• The mean run off during the period.
• Total volume of flow upto any time is given by the area
under the curve upto that time.
 Hydro power plant

• Power system mainly contains three parts

namely generation, transmission and
distribution.
• Generation means how to generate electricity
from the available source and there are various
methods to generate electricity but here we
only focused on generation of electricity by
the means of hydro or water (hydro power
plant).
• In hydro power plant we use gravitational force
of fluid water to run the turbine which is coupled
with electric generator to produce electricity.
• This power plant plays an important role to
protect our fossil fuel which is limited, because
the generated electricity in hydro power station is
the use of water which is renewable source of
energy and available in lots of amount without
any cost.
 Specific Objective 3
• Explain the parts of hydro electric power
plant.(E,T)
 Parts of hydro power plant
a) Area
b) Dam
c) Forebay
d) Penstock
e) Surge tank
f) Spillway
g) Tailrace
h) Turbines and generators
 Area and Dam

• For construction of hydro power plant first we

choose the area where the water is sufficient to
reserve and no any crisis of water and suitable to
build a dam, then we construct the dam.
• The main function of dam is to stop the flow of water
and reserve the water in reservoir.
• Mainly dam is situated at a good height to increase
the force of water.
 Penstock
• The pipe which is connected between dam and
turbine blades.
• The most important purpose of the penstock is to
enlarge the kinetic energy of water that’s why this
pipe is made up of extremely well-built material
which carry on the pressure of water.
TYPES OF PENSTOCK
• High pressure: thick steel pipes
• Low pressure: canal or flumes
 Surge Tank

WATER HAMMER:
• When the load on the generator is reduced suddenly
(load throw-off), governor closes the turbine gates
and thus create an increase in  pressure on the
penstock.
• This may result in water " hammering effect" and
may require pipe of extra ordinary strength this
pressure, otherwise the penstock may burst. 
Water Hammer:

When the turbine gates suddenly opens due to requirement of

more water due to increase in the load demand on the
generator, water has to rush through the pipe (penstock) and
there is a tendency to cause a vacuum in the pipe supplying the
water.

The water hammering is defined as the change in the pressure

rapidly above or below normal pressure caused by sudden
changes in the rate of water flow through the pipe according to
the load demand.
USE OF SURGE TANK:

• When load demand on the generator decreases, it

leads to rise in the water level in the surge tank.
• This produces a retarding head and reduces water
velocity in the penstock.
• The reduction in the velocity to the desired levels,
makes the water in the tank to rise and fall until
oscillations are damped out.
USE OF SURGE TANK:
• When load demand on the generator increases, governor
opens the turbine gates in order to allow more water flow
through the penstock to supply the increased load demand
thereby creating a negative pressure or vacuum in the
penstock.
• This negative pressure in the penstock creates necessary
acceleration force and is objectionable for very long conduits
due to difficult turbine regulation.
• Under this condition additional water flows from the surge
tank.
• As a result the water level in the surge tank falls, an
acceleration head is created and flow of water in the penstock
increases.
TYPE OF SURGE TANKS:

• SIMPLE SURGE TANK

• INCLINED SURGE TANK
• EXPANSION CHAMBER SURGE TANK
• THROTTLED SURGE TANK
 FOREBAY
• Enlarged body of water provided infront of
penstock
• Provided in case of runoff river plants and
storage plants
INTAKE STRUCTURE

• Main components are trash rack and gate

• Trash rack prevents entry of debris
 SPILLWAY
• Every dam is provided with an arrangement to
discharge excess water during floods. This arrangement
may be a spillway or a bypass tunnel or conduit.
Types of spillway
 Overflow
 Chute
 Side channel
 Shaft
 Siphon
 TAIL RACE

• The water that has been used to rotate the turbine

blades and turbines shaft leaves the power
generation unit entering the pipeline called as the
tailrace.
• From here the water flows into the main river. The
height of water in the tailrace is much below the
height of water in the water reservoir behind the
dam.
• The potential energy of water in the tailrace has
been used to generate electricity.
 Turbine and Generator
• Turbine is the main stuff, when water comes through
the penstock with high kinetic energy and falls on
turbine blades, turbine rotates at high speed.
• As we know that the turbine is an engine that
transfers energy of fluid into mechanical energy
which is coupled with generator and generator
converts mechanical energy into electrical energy
which we utilize at the end.
 STIMULATING QUESTIONS
• What is the difference between dam &
reservoir?
• Micro-hydro power plant
• Total hydro power generation in India and
Tamil Nadu.
DISCUSSION
 MINDMAP
Power
Forebay House Spillway

Penstock PARTS OF HYRO

Tailrace Run off
POWER PLANT

Surge
Tank HYDRO POWER BASIC
Stream
PLANT TERMINOLOGY
flow

Hydrogr
aph
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTGES

Renewable Energy Dependent on availability of water.

Clean Energy Source Considerably long time for
Domestic Energy Source completion.
Generally Available As Needed
 SUMMARY
1. Parts of Hydro power plant
• Intake and power canal
• Forebay
• Penstock
• Powerhouse
• Tailrace
2. Advantages
• Renewable Energy
• Clean Energy Source
• Domestic Energy Source
• Generally Available As Needed
• Provides Recreational Opportunities
• Water Supply and Flood Control