Water Inspire

Download as docx, pdf, or txt
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1of 4

INSPIRE 2021

UPLIFTING OF WATER TO LOW HEAD DAM'S RESERVOIR TO


SUSTAIN WATER FLOW FOR HYDROPOWER PROJECTS
SUBMITTED BY: AMOGH DEV VERMA
VII-B, RPS, BHILAI.

INTRODUCTION
Generating electricity from water is a fascinating concept.
I tried to analyse why our and most of Indian states are
not able to utilize their waterbodies to generate
hydropower?
The major culprit comes out as unavailability of water
through out the year.

What is Hydropower

Description
Hydroelectric power harnesses the energy in running
water!

Where can you find hydroelectric power?


Hydroelectric dams can be found all over the world,
where large amounts of water can be trapped behind a
reservoir.

How is it made into electricity?


Most hydro schemes create a reservoir, usually by
building a large dam to flood a valley. This trapped
water is allowed to escape through pipes in the dam.
When the water flows through the pipes, it turns a
turbine that is linked to a generator that produces
electricity.
‘Run of the River’ hydro systems don’t use a dam and
reservoir, but harness the energy in fast-flowing rivers!

What are the advantages of using hydroelectric power?


Water is plentiful, free, and renewable.
Hydro-electric power does not produce any carbon
dioxide emissions when using water to produce
electricity.
Electricity can be generated 24 hours a day as long as
there is enough water. But this can’t happen every day
as the reservoir needs time to fill up again from time to
time.
The dam gates can be opened and closed to control
when the electricity is made.
The amount of electricity produced can also be
controlled by changing how much water can flow.
It is much more reliable than wind and solar power,
although it does depend on enough rain, especially for
‘run of the river’ systems.
What are the disadvantages of using hydroelectric
power?
It is very expensive to build a dam, and construction can
produce a lot of emissions.
When a dam is built, a huge area is flooded to make a
lake. The water displaces the people and animals living
there.
It can be difficult to find a suitable site for a reservoir or
a dam. There are very few available sites for new plant
in the INDIA.

BASIC REQUIREMENTS FOR A HYDROPOWER PROJECT:


1) HEAD - vertical distance between reservoir and
turbine.
2) FLOW - minimum amount of water available through
out the year.
This flow factor is an issue in India as most of the rivers
are seasonal and doesn't have enough water through out
the year.

MANAGEMENT OF FLOW:
To maintain the continuous flow through out the year in a
hydropower project, water from lower reservoir can be
uplifted to upper reservoir.
So basically water will be recycled betwwen both the
reservoir and we can have countinuous flow through out
the year.

DIAGRAM SHOWING LOW HEAD HYDROPOWER SYSTEM

MECHANISM:
1) To uplift the water from lower to upper reservoir, I
suggest application of natural forces like capillary force or
suction force to keep the project under budget.
2) A siphon can be used as a mean to uplift water to
upper reservoir.

3)At sea level, a siphon can uplift water upto little more
than 10 metres.
4)In a lower reservoir, where water is already flowing
downwards, the pressure of water on siphon will raise
the upliftment height as the pressure implied on water is
increased.

DIAGRAM SHOWING UPLIFTMENT OF WATER USING


SIPHON
5) This can be especially useful in LOW HEAD
HYDROPOWER PLANTS, where water head is less than 15
metre or so.
6)The low head water plants can be more practical as
they are enviornment friendly and low budget affairs.

CONCLUSION:
The scheme can be used for small and micro hydropower
projects. More efforts can also be done to develop micro
hydropower systems, just like solar power panels
installed at roof top of homes with perpetual water flow
with limited availability of water.

You might also like