Title of the Project

Role of pumped-storage hydropower project in addressing dry season demand

and use of smart meter.

Abstract

Most of the hydropower project in Nepal are of RoR type. In wet season, all those rivers flow
full and installed capacity of the power station can be fully utilized. But in case of dry season,
the runoff in such river decreases considerably (one-fourth of the installed capacity) and that
hydropower runs under powered. In Nepal, only Kulekhani-I is a pondage storage project which
can store head for use in dry season, making it the only hydropower source contributing to dry
season, especially in peak hours. Thus, more of such storage hydropower are needed to be built
in order to tackle the drastic variation in electricity demand during peak hours. But, such
storage project need large dams to be built, resulting in necessity of large pondage area which
requires a lot of investment and even then, such artificial reservoirs cannot be made at will.
Here we propose an alternative solution to manage dry season demand by utilizing naturally
built reservoirs with the help of a pumped-storage hydropower project. It uses two reservoirs
at different elevation where electricity is generated by lowering water from the reservoir at
higher elevation to lower during peak hours and water is pumped from the lower reservoir to
higher during off-peak hours thus sustaining an adequate amount of water in the higher
reservoir.
Table of Contents
Title of the Project.......................................................................................................................................1
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................................1
1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................................2
1.1 Aims and Objectives....................................................................................................................3
1.2 Overview of this Report...............................................................................................................3
2. Background Research..........................................................................................................................3
2.1 Motivation and Currently available products..............................................................................3
2.2 Extensions to the basic design...........................................................................................................4
2.2.1 Brief introduction to Smart Meter..............................................................................................4
3. Rupa-Begnas pumped-storage hydropower........................................................................................4
3.1 Model Characteristics:.......................................................................................................................5
3.1.1 Scale:........................................................................................................................................5
3.1.2 Contours and terrain:...............................................................................................................5
3.1.3 Turbine and water transmission:.........................................................................................5
4. Conclusion and discussion:..................................................................................................................5
 1. Introduction
A pumped-storage type hydropower is a type of hydroelectricity energy storage. It is a
configuration of two water reservoirs at different elevations providing certain head.
During peak hours the water from higher reservoir is made to flow through the turbine
into the lower reservoir, thus generating electricity. By doing so, the water level in the
higher reservoir falls and that of the lower reservoir rises. This is where this type of
hydropower comes into action. It is provided with a provision for pumping the water back
into the higher reservoir. This ‘pumping’ is only done during off-peak hours, using the
electricity from an external grid, when there is a surplus electricity generation in the
country. But during the peak hours, when there is high demand of electricity, the pumping
is stopped and electricity is generated. This will out to be economical as the tariff charges
during peak hour is higher than that during off-peak hours with the introduction of smart
meters. By introducing a new technology, unfamiliar in the context of Nepal, in Smart
Meter, the high variation in demand during peak hours can be subsided. A smart Meter is
an electronic device that keeps a tab on the consumption of electricity during peak and
off-peak hours and communicates the information to the electricity supplier for
monitoring and billing.
The energy generation and pumping process can be carried out through separate
mechanism or through the same penstock if a dual role motor-generator turbine can be
used. Furthermore, the pumped-storage can be classified into two types: pure and mixed
type. In pure type, all the water utilized in running the turbine is pumped back into the
higher reservoir while in mixed type water is partially restored.

1.1 Aims and Objectives

i) To demonstrate the power generation process of a pumped hydropower.
ii) To manifest how this type of hydropower can unconventionally contribute in
tackling the power demand deficit in dry season.
iii) To clarify the concept about smart meter and how using a smart meter
(respective/irrespective) to a pumped-storage hydropower project can
significantly lower the demand surge between peak and off-peak hours.

1.2 Overview of this Report

This report fully describes the project undertaken. However, to control the length of report,
topics and descriptions are closed often briefly, the reader in occasion is referred to
bibliographical reference if particular details are required.
 2. Background Research
The project idea came about in response to the need to cope with the peak hour electricity
demands of the country during the dry seasons when efficiency of existent power plants dips.
However, enabling such sort of hydropower projects is difficult and requires an extensive analysis
and data collection of the respective area. The background research on the project involved
studying of various already built pumped storage plants in different countries as well and the
feasibility studies of the proposed site i.e. Rupa-Begnas area.

However before looking at the actual design process, it is important to shed some light on the
motivations and to see which projects and research in this area have been undertaken.

2.1 Motivation and Currently available products

Analysis of available research papers and an extensive searching on the internet has revealed a
great potential in such kind of hydropower plants. It is one of the major power suppliers in many
European countries, china, Australia, etc. However, our country does not have such sort of
hydropower built up until now. The still lingering power shortage of our country that increases
steeply during dry seasons and the interrupted power supply during off peak hours can be
minimized or even eliminated by building such hydropower plants.

Thus the motivation for proceeding with this project is that the sad state of electricity and power
availability of our country can be significantly improved. Plus, by pumping water back to upper
reservoir during off peak hours when electricity is significantly cheaper and then generating
electricity and distributing it during heavy demand hours can boost the economical state of nation
as a whole.

2.2 Extensions to the basic design

When and if the such sort of project is launched successfully, there are then some extensions that
can be used along with basic power plant to enhance the technical as well as economic efficiency.
The one and most important of all that we are going to discuss here is ‘Smart Meter’. However, any
changes to the already established generic power grid can be complex and expensive but it is worth
any complications and would provide nothing but an aid to the project in the long run.

2.2.1 Brief introduction to Smart Meter

The present system of energy metering as well as billing in our country uses electromechanical
and somewhere digital energy meter. It consumes more time and labor. One of the prime
reasons for need of smart meter is that the traditional billing system is many times inaccurate,
slow, costly, and lacks in flexibility as well as reliability. Today accuracy in electricity billing is
highly recommended for the fact that is the prominent power source of all and controls major
share of country’s economy and infrastructure. The smart energy meter gives real power
consumption as well as accurate billing. It provides real time monitoring of electricity uses, is
less time consuming and cost effective.
WHAT MAKES A METER SMART?
 Solid state
 Communications
 Electronics under glass
 Two –Way
  Proactive

3. Rupa-Begnas pumped-storage hydropower

Our project model proposes a pumped-storage type hydropower utilizing the significant head
between two of lakes i.e. Rupa (elevation 600m approx.) and Begnas (elevation 660m approx.).
The relatively surplus power during the off peak hours is then used to pump the water back to
Begnas lake from Rupa lake and same water is then allowed to pass through the turbines during
peak hours thus contributing to a beautiful and scientifically excellent power cycle. A smart Meter
is used to keep the tab on the consumption of electricity during peak and off-peak hours and
communicates the information to the electricity supplier for monitoring and billing.

Since the water falls down from Begnas lake to Rupa lake, the two lakes act as natural reservoirs
that reduce the cost of construction and maintenance of reservoirs drastically hence it can be
considered as an economically sound project. After performing several trials by many studies
including that by NEA, the plant capacity was fixed at 100MW which can operate for 5 hours. This
5 hours’ operation will utilize approximately 4.1 million cubic meters of water at approximately
227m3/s, resulting in inundation of approximately 60 hectares of farmland downstream of Rupa.
This capacity increases by three folds once the operation hours are reduced to 3 hours.

3.1 Model Characteristics:

3.1.1 Scale:
Due to space issues and limitation on the area of the platform imposed by organizing committee,
the scale of our model is distorted as follows:

Horizontal Scale: 1:1430

Vertical Scale: 1:100

3.1.2 Contours and terrain:

The model comprises of contour lines with an elevation difference of 10 cms (5m in reference map
used). The contour lines are distinctively labelled with flags and the terrain is made as relatable to
the original tomography as possible. Due to the distortion and scale limitation, it was difficult to
maintain the exactness though.

3.1.3 Turbine and water transmission:

A 90 degree pipe is used to supply water from upper lake i.e. Begnas to Rupa, it is based on the
study by Kathmandu university. The turbine used is Pelton type for simplicity and enhancing the
efficiency of the model.

4. Conclusion and discussion:

The model was quite fruitful. We gained the practical knowledge about the different components
of a hydropower plant. Through extensive researches and study, we also became familiar with the
situation of electricity in Nepal. We also got the chance to make the comparison between the
different hydropower plants and their objectives, area based significances. Overall created model
of what we studied theoretically and that is something that helps in clearer visualization.