Design of Water Conductor System for Ultra Low Head Hydropower Project – A Case Study

Abstract

Many Indian villages suffer from poor and unreliable power supply. On the other hand, a huge amount of energy is wasted throughout the country in natural streams and flowing canals with ultra low head (less than 3 meters) because there is currently no cost-effective way to convert it into a usable form. In such areas, small hydropower schemes can be undertaken on canals flowing through nearby areas which can satisfy their energy needs up to larger extent. Along the canals there exist various falls depending on the topography of the region to cater the country slope. On such falls due to low-head relatively low specific energy is available. This requires large volumetric flow rates and consequently large and expensive machines to recover the energy. As returns on small hydro schemes are marginal, it is very crucial to lower the cost of the project by optimizing the design of water conductor system. In this paper, the cost-effective design of water conductor system of Nadiad mini hydropower project has been presented.