Alternative Solutions for Small Hydropower Plants

Damian Liszka, Zbigniew Krzemianowski, Tomasz Węgiel, Dariusz Borkowski, Andrzej Polniak, Konrad Wawrzykowski and Artur Cebula
Additional contact information
Damian Liszka: Department of Electrical Engineering, Cracow University of Technology, Warszawska 24 St., 31-155 Cracow, Poland
Zbigniew Krzemianowski: Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery of the Polish Academy of Science, Fiszera 14 St., 80-231 Gdansk, Poland
Tomasz Węgiel: Department of Electrical Engineering, Cracow University of Technology, Warszawska 24 St., 31-155 Cracow, Poland
Dariusz Borkowski: Department of Electrical Engineering, Cracow University of Technology, Warszawska 24 St., 31-155 Cracow, Poland
Andrzej Polniak: AQUA-Tech, Lipcowa 64 St., 32-540 Trzebinia, Poland
Konrad Wawrzykowski: WODEL, Piłsudskiego 40 St., 67-100 Nowa Sol, Poland
Artur Cebula: Department of Electrical Engineering, Cracow University of Technology, Warszawska 24 St., 31-155 Cracow, Poland

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-31

Abstract: Obtaining energy from renewable resources is a worldwide trend in the age of increasing energy demand. Hydropower has some potential in this field, especially for low-power locations. However, construction of such facilities requires high expenses, which is why some attempts at lowering the costs have been made, i.e., by proposing alternative solutions to the classic ones. This paper proposes a selection of options for small hydropower plants (SHP) that lower the investment costs while keeping up profitable operations. The proposed solutions concern simplifying the turbine’s and generator’s integration by installing them in dedicated prefabricated concrete modules. A rare but simple and cheap semi-Kaplan type of turbine with a non-classical spiral inflow is proposed. The turbine operates a permanent magnet (PM)-excited generator, converting the energy at a variable rotational speed. Thanks to this approach, it is possible to simplify the regulation system and eliminate expensive mechanical transmission. However, on the power grid side, a power electronic converter (PEC) must be coupled with the generator. The advantage of this solution compared to the classical ones is that the reliability of power electronics is much higher than that of mechanical systems. This paper presents modeling research on semi-Kaplan turbines’ series development, and a dedicated PM generator is presented as an example of a complete hydro unit with 50 kW power.

Keywords: semi-Kaplan turbine; variable speed generation; permanent magnet generator; small hydropower plants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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