What is a Run-of-River Project?

The type of hydroelectric project that is commonly used today in British Columbia is the
run-of-river project. It is deemed as a significant contributor to green power because it
requires little or no storage to generate the electricity that is needed. Unlike large hydro
projects that have been built traditionally in B.C., no large dam, reservoir or flooding will
result from the Ashlu project. The energy produced will come from the naturally flowing
mountain waters.

Here is how the Ashlu Creek Project would work:

Weir and Intake

Located 8 kilometres upstream of the confluence with the Squamish River, a 3 metre
high inflatable rubber weir sitting on top of an approximately 3 metre high sill will divert
some of the water from Ashlu Creek into an intake structure, which subsequently directs
the water into an underground tunnel. The rubber weir is inflated to slow down the
water in the creek so that some of the water can be diverted into the tunnel. A fish ladder
will be installed at the weir to allow any fish to pass upstream of the weir.

Intake structure at Rutherford Creek

Tunnel
A 4 metre diameter, underground tunnel will be built through solid granite. It will
transport the diverted water over 4 kilometres downstream to the powerhouse. The
tunnel will be built entirely underground so that there is no disturbance to wildlife.
Soo River Hydro Electric Project Powerhouse

Powerhouse
Inside the powerhouse, the incoming water from the tunnel will turn the turbines to
generate electricity. The powerhouse is the size of a large, residential house and is well
insulated to minimise any noise. There is only a minimal amount of lighting on the
outside of the powerhouse; there are lights on the inside for a worker to monitor the
turbines. Lights and noise from the Ashlu powerhouse will not be visible nor audible
from the Squamish Valley.

Turbine Generator
Water Return Channel
After passing through the turbines, the water returns, clean and unchanged, through a
channel and back into the natural creek. The returning water is several hundreds of
metres upstream of the salmon habitat area on the Ashlu delta to ensure no disturbance
to the salmon during spawning season. There is no net loss of water to the creek as all of
the diverted water is returned to the creek.

Powerline
An overhead powerline will be installed and will follow the existing logging road for 2.5
kilometres to connect to BC Hydro's existing powerlines from the Cheakamus Generating
Station. By tying into the existing power lines, there is no new power line down the
Upper Squamish Valley and no visual impact to the local area residents.

Green Power Advantages

Ashlu Creek Green Power Project Backgrounder

"Leadership in Green Power"

The Ashlu Creek Green Power Project is a 49 megawatt run-of-river project that is
located approximately 35km northwest of Squamish. It is situated near BC Hydro's
Cheakamus Generating Station and several kilometres from the nearest residents of the
Upper Squamish Valley. The project will produce enough electricity for 23,000 homes
each year and 100% of the electricity is sold to BC Hydro.

Continue reading “Ashlu Creek Green Power Project Backgrounder”

Green Power Project Criteria

BC Hydro has stated in 2001 that over the next ten years its goal is to ensure that 10%
(on average) of all new energy resources required to meet incremental growth will be
from green energy sources. For IPPs to contribute in achieving this goal, green standards
were developed so that BC Hydro can acquire energy from new, high quality projects.

Continue reading “Green Power Project Criteria”

10 Steps to Developing a Waterpower Project

Step 1 - Submission of Application (Complete)

The proponent officially submitted an application to Land and Water British Columbia
(LWBC) with information required under the Water Act and Land Act. The application
required that the proponent would work with qualified professionals to ensure that the
information in the submission was complete and to the satisfaction of LWBC. The
following information was included in the application for a waterpower project:

1. Completed application forms for the Crown land tenures and a water license;
2. Maps and plans of the project;
3. Title certificates and legal plans;
4. Preliminary project definition;
5. Certificate of incorporation; and
6. Application fees

Step 2 - Review of Application by LWBC (Complete)

The information submitted by the proponent was then reviewed by LWBC. The
application was deemed to be complete, the applicant was notified in writing and
discussions between the proponent and LWBC over the schedule for completing the
project then began. This Notification by LWBC was not an indication that the application
would be either refused or accepted.

Step 3 - Preparation of Development Plan (Complete)

The Development Plan was prepared by the proponent to provide LWBC with the
information that fully defined the project and identified the impacts from the
construction and operation of the project. This information formed the basis for the
official decision to approve the application under the Water Act and Land Act. The
Development Plan consisted (as is required) of two sections: the Project Definition and
the Impact Assessment. The first section provided the definition of the project in terms
of location and physical characteristics and was not significantly different from what was
submitted in Step 1. The second section of the report identified all impacts of the
construction and operation of the project and includes a communication plan for public
consultation. During the preparation of the second section it was the proponent's
responsibility to contact all other parties that may be affected by the impacts of the
projects. The following list shows the different parties that were contacted:

1. Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (Canadian Coast Guard)

2. Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (Habitat Protection Branch)
3. District of Squamish
4. Environment Canada (Pacific Yukon Region)
5. Environment Canada (Canadian Wildlife Service)
6. Ministry of Forests (Squamish Forest District)
 7. Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection
8. Ministry of Energy and Mines
9. Ministry of Transportation
10. Provincial Agriculture Land Commission
11. Squamish-Lillooet Regional District
12. Squamish Nation
13. Whitewater Kayaking Association of British Colombia
14. Upper Squamish Valley Residents

Step 4 - Review of Development Plan by LWBC (Complete)

The Development Plan was then reviewed by LWBC. This review was not a
determination of the adequacy of the mitigation and compensation proposed by the
proponent, nor was it a decision about the granting of the applications under the Water
Act and Land Act. The information provided by the proponent was reviewed to ensure
that it was reasonably complete and that the best information was made available to
other parties for input under Step 5.

Step 5 - Review of the Project (Almost Complete)

The review of the project was initiated to give agencies, interested parties, and First
Nations and opportunity to provide LWBC with information to determine the impacts
and potential effects of the project on the rights people have under the Water Act and
Land Act and also to determine the potential for infringements on aboriginal rights or
title over land and water resources. The information is also being used to determine the
appropriate mitigation and compensation measures to address the impacts.

Step 6 - Preparation of Summary Report (In Progress)

The Information from Step 5 was gathered by the proponent and is currently being
compiled into a Summary Report. It is a condensed form of the Development plan and
summarizes the information from the assessment of impacts received from all parties.
Conclusions on the assessment of impacts and the proposed mitigation and
compensation measures by the affected parties will be clearly stated.

Step 7 - Decision on the Application (Expected July 2004)

LWBC will review all information related to the waterpower project, and make a decision
to grant or refuse the application under the Water Act and Land Act. Upon acceptance of
the waterpower project the proponent is offered tenure to the Crown land and is
provided with a draft water license. LWBC issues the land tenure and water license when
the proponent accepts the offer.
Step 8 - Construction of Project (Commence Fall 2004)
The water License will include conditions that require the licensee to submit criteria for
the design of the project and plans for its construction. Such criteria include:

1. the preparing, to the satisfaction of the engineer under the Water Act, of an
environmental management plan (EMP) for the management and mitigation of
construction impacts;
2. the retaining of an independent engineer to provide information and reports on
the design and construction of the works to the engineer under the Water Act; and
3. the retaining of an independent environmental monitor to provide information
and reports on the compliance of construction with the EMP.

Step 9 - Operation of Project (Commence Spring 2007)

The procedures for the operation of the project will be submitted to LWBC in the form of
a report prepared by the licensee. LWBC will review the report and issue directions for
the commencement of the operation of the project.

Step 10 - Monitoring of Project

The proponent will be required to submit information on the quantity of electricity
generated by the project and other information on the compliance with the water license
and land tenures. The proponent will also be required to implement a monitoring
program to confirm that particular impacts will have been satisfactorily addressed. In the
case of the Ashlu Project, five years of post-construction monitoring has been planned.
Run-of-the-river hydroelectricity is a type of hydroelectric generation whereby the
natural flow and elevation drop of a river are used to generate electricity. Power stations
of this type are built on rivers with a consistent and steady flow, either natural or
through the use of a large reservoir at the head of the river which then can provide a
regulated steady flow for stations down-river (such as the Gouin Reservoir for the Saint-
Maurice River in Quebec, Canada).

Chief Joseph Dam near Bridgeport, Washington, USA, is a major run-of-river station
without a sizeable reservoir.

[edit] Concept

Run-of-River projects are dramatically different in design, appearance and impact from
conventional hydroelectric projects. Power stations on rivers with great seasonal
fluctuations require a large reservoir in order to operate during the dry season, resulting
in the necessity to impound and flood large tracts of land. In contrast, run of river
projects do not require a large impoundment of water.[1] Instead, some of the water is
diverted from a river, and sent into a pipe called a penstock. The penstock feeds the
water downhill to the power station's turbines. Because of the difference in relief,
potential energy from the water up river is transformed into kinetic energy while it flows
downriver through the penstock, giving it the speed required to spin the turbines that in
turn transform this kinetic energy into electrical energy. Additionally, there is no
alteration of downstream flows, since all diverted water is returned to the stream below
the powerhouse.

Most run-of-river power plants consist of a dam across the full width of the river to
utilize all the river's water for electricity generation. Such installations have a reservoir
behind the dam but since flooding is minimal, they can be considered "run-of-river".
[citation needed]
[edit] Advantages

Flooding the upper part of the river is not required as it doesn't need a large reservoir. As
a result, people living at or near the river don't need to be relocated and natural habitats
are preserved, reducing the environmental impact as compared to reservoirs.[citation needed]

[edit] Disadvantages

The output of the power plant is highly dependent on natural run-off. Spring melts will
create a lot of energy while dry seasons will create relatively little energy. While there is
no flooding, there is still negative environmental impact through clearing for power
lines, roads, and a water diversion which may affect fish stocks. A run-of-the-river power
plant has little or no capacity for energy storage[citation needed] and hence can't co-ordinate
the output of electricity generation to match consumer demand.
 RUN OF THE RIVER HYDRO POWER
PROS AND CONS

Run of the river hydro power relies on the natural flow of a waterway. If the water
flow in a stream is reduced, so is the available power output of a hydro turbine
placed in the stream.

[You will need the Free Adobe Reader to access some of the documents on this
page.]

Run of the river hydropower involves placing small, mini, or micro hydro turbines
into waterways without large dams. There are a number of ways to do this as shown
in this European Union Hydropower Document . (This is a big file, over 11 MB, so it
takes a bit to open.)

Another good resource is this Small Hydro Project Analysis Manual from the
Canadian Ministry of Natural Resources in collaboration with the U.S. National
Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Run of the river hydro projects can involve small dams, but they are done in a way
that doesn’t flood massive amounts of land or interfere greatly with marine life.
Other hydro turbines operate without dams.

Some projects involve running a pipe down the stream. This pipe becomes a
Penstock that creates a head pressure, which allows a hydro turbine to run
efficiently.

And some methods simply place a water turbine in a strong current area of a river in
a manner that involves no visible structure at all. They lay quietly under the surface
of the river, out of sight, with minimal environmental impact, and generate power
from the natural flow of the river.

Run of the river hydropower turbines are much smaller than those found on large,
dammed reservoir projects. While there is no defined standard for size, several
terms are in general use.

Small hydro power plants range in size from about 1 MW (Megawatt or one million
Watts) to 50 MW.

Hydropower turbines in the 100 KW (Kilowatt or thousands of Watts) to 1 MW size

range are referred to as mini hydro plants.
Micro hydro turbines refer to anything less than 100 KW in size.
_________________________________________________________________

ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLINESS -

Run of the river methods are inherently more environmentally friendly than big
dams. These methods do not flood land or obstruct rivers in ways that adversely
restrict marine life movement.

Since no new land is flooded, existing forests are left in place to continue the process
of absorbing greenhouse gasses.

New hydro turbine designs and conservation minded construction eliminate fish kills
and many of these ideas are in the process of being retrofitted to larger dams.
_________________________________________________________________

COST –

Generating costs depend on the amount of flow, the degree of drop across a short
distance, and the technology used. Hundreds of these projects are being installed
annually and most operate on a competitive basis with fossil fuel powered generating
plants. It’s only a matter of placing the generators at suitable locations in a flowing
stream.
_________________________________________________________________

AVAILABILITY –

Because run of the river systems take advantage of much smaller water flow
volumes, they are far more widely available than power dams.

Some of these systems are so small that they can be economically used in a small
creek to reliably generate electricity for just one home.

Run of the river hydropower can be extraordinarily reliable and offer continuous
power around the clock, 365 days a year.

But because stream flows do vary from month to month. The big key to high
reliability levels is a combination of good site selection and hydro turbine sizing that
is compatible with the stream in which it is placed.

_________________________________________________________________
If you live by a stream of any size, these Department of Energy sites can help
determine if your site is suitable for this type of hydro electric power, and what kind
of equipment will best serve your needs:

NREL Run of the River Hydro

DOE Hydropower Prospector
_________________________________________________________________

AESTHETICS –

All run of the river hydropower systems are restricted to existing river areas and
some are entirely underwater. Many of the surface structures will exist in areas that
are already industrialized.

These small hydropower systems should never pose aesthetics problems like wind
turbines that noisily dot the countryside, or stack gas emissions coming from fossil
fuel fired power plants. There won’t even be a vapor flume from a cooling tower.

Any way you look at this form of hydropower, it comes up a winner.

Small hydro
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Micro hydro in North-West Vietnam

1895 hydroelectric plant near Telluride, Colorado

Small hydro is the development of hydroelectric power on a scale serving a small

community or industrial plant. The definition of a small hydro project varies but a
generating capacity of up to 10 megawatts (MW) is generally accepted as the upper limit
of what can be termed small hydro. This may be stretched to 25 MW and 30 MW in
Canada and the USA. In contrast many hydroelectric projects are of enormous size, such
as the generating plant at the Hoover Dam (2,074 megawatts) or the vast multiple
projects of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Small hydro can be further subdivided into mini hydro, usually defined as less than
1,000 kW, and micro hydro which is less than 100 kW. Micro hydro is usually the
application of hydroelectric power sized for small communities, single families or small
enterprise.

Small hydro plants may be connected to conventional electrical distribution networks as

a source of low-cost renewable energy. Alternatively, small hydro projects may be built in
isolated areas that would be uneconomic to serve from a network, or in areas where there
is no national electrical distribution network. Since small hydro projects usually have
minimal reservoirs and civil construction work, they are seen as having a relatively low
environmental impact compared to large hydro. This decreased environmental impact
depends strongly on the balance between stream flow and power production. One tool
that helps evaluate this issue is the Flow Duration Curve or FDC. The FDC is a Pareto
curve of a stream's daily flow rate vs. frequency. Reductions of diversion help the river's
ecosystem, but reduce the hydro system's ROI. The hydro system designer and site
developer must strike a balance to maintain both the health of the stream and the
economics.

[edit] Growth

During 2008 small hydro installations grew by 28% over year 2005 to raise the total
world small hydro capacity to 85 gigawatts. Over 70% of this was in China (with 65 GW),
followed by Japan (3.5 GW), the United States (3 GW) and India (2 GW).[1] China plans
to electrify a further 10,000 villages by 2010 under their China Village Electrification
Program using renewable energy, including further investments in small hydro and
photovoltaics.[1]

[edit] Generation

Hydroelectric power is the generation of electric power from the movement of water. A
hydroelectric facility requires a dependable flow of water and a reasonable height of fall
of water, called the head. In a typical installation, water is fed from a reservoir through a
channel or pipe into a turbine. The pressure of the flowing water on the turbine blades
causes the shaft to rotate. The rotating shaft is connected to an electrical generator which
converts the motion of the shaft into electrical energy.

Small hydro is often developed using existing dams or through development of new
dams whose primary purpose is river and lake water-level control, or irrigation.
Occasionally old, abandoned hydro sites may be purchased and re-developed, sometimes
salvaging substantial parts of the installation such as penstocks and turbines, or
sometimes just re-using the water rights associated with an abandoned site. Either of
these cost saving advantages can make the ROI for a small hydro site well worth the use
of existing site infrastructure & water rights.

[edit] Project design

Many companies offer standardized turbine generator packages in the approximate size
range of 200 kW to 10 MW. These "water to wire" packages simplify the planning and
development of the site since one vendor looks after most of the equipment supply. Since
non-recurring engineering costs are minimized and development cost is spread over
multiple units, the cost of such systems is improved. While synchronous generators
capable of isolated plant operation are often used, small hydro plants connected to an
electrical grid system can use economical induction generators to further reduce
installation cost and simplify control and operation.

Micro-hydro plants may use purpose-designed turbines or use industrial centrifugal

pumps, connected in reverse to act as turbines. While these machines rarely have
optimum hydraulic characteristics when operated as turbines, their low purchase cost
makes them attractive for micro-hydro class installations.

Regulation of small hydro generating units may require diversion of water around the
turbine, since the project may have no reservoir to store unused water. For micro-hydro
schemes feeding only a few loads, a resistor bank may be used to dissipate electrical
energy as heat during periods of low demand. In a sense this energy is wasted but the
incremental fuel cost is negligible so there is little economic loss.

Other small hydro schemes may use tidal energy or propeller-type turbines immersed in
flowing water to extract energy. Tidal schemes may require water storage or electrical
energy storage to level out the intermittent (although exactly predictable) flow of power.

Since small hydro projects usually have minimal environmental and licensing
procedures, and since the equipment is usually in serial production, standardized and
simplified, and since the civil works construction is also small, small hydro projects may
be developed very rapidly. The physically small size of equipment makes it easier to
transport to remote areas without good road or rail access.

Micro-hydro installations can also provide multiple uses. For instance, micro-hydro
projects in rural Asia have incoporated agro-processing facilities such as rice mills -
alongside standard electrification - into the project design [2].

[edit] Small scale DIY hydroplants

With a growing DIY-community and an increasing interest in environmentally friendly

"green energy", some hobbyists have endeavored to build their own hydroeletric plants
from old water mills, or from kits or from scratch.[3] Usually, the DIY-community uses
decayed/abandoned water mills to mount a waterwheel and other electrical components.
[citation needed]
This approach has also been popularised in TV-series as It's Not Easy Being
Green. These are usually smaller turbines of ~5kW or less.[5][6][7] Through the internet,
[4]

the community is now able to obtain plans to construct DIY-water turbines.[7][8][9][10] and
there is a growing trend toward building them for domestic requirements. The DIY-
hydroelectric plants are now being used both in developed countries and in developing
countries, to power residences and small businesses.