Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
2017
Abstract: In designing micro hydropower plants capacity, the amount of water flow discharge determination is very essential in
estimating the power output for the micro hydropower scheme due to the fact that in recent years there has been an increase in water
demand due irrigation activities because of an increase in agriculture activities [1]. From the literature, there are several methods that
are used to determine hydro turbine water flow discharge but the most widely used method is the hydrological method which is based on
the formulation of flow duration curve or hydrograph for the respective river flow based on site historical and measured hydrological
data.
The hydrograph represents the amount of water flow in m3/s that is available for a particular river or stream in percentage from the
historical hydrological data which has been computed over a period of more than one year. From the study of Hhaynu River which is a
small river in Tanzania, the computed flow results show that, 8% of the time the flow is at 2.3 m3/s while at 50% of the time the river
flow was at 1.86 m3/s and at 100% of the time the water flow was at 0.60 m 3/s. When determining design discharge for run-of-river
schemes, provision have to be considered for environmental flow on which for the Hhaynu River this has been analysed to be 0.2 m3/s
(33.3% of river base flow) which resulted to the hydro-turbine development design water flow discharge of 0.4 m 3/s from the computed
flow duration curve with provision for environmental flow.
The usefulness of developing flow duration curve for rivers is to determine the available water flow in a particular small river and its
suitability for micro hydropower development from estimates of the amount of water flow discharge.
Index Terms: Flow duration curve, River flow velocity, Discharge, Hydrograph, Time exceeded, Hhaynu, Mbulu
Note: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper.
www.ijastems.org Page 10
International Journal of Advanced Scientific Technologies in Engineering and Management Sciences (IJASTEMS-ISSN: 2454-356X) Volume.3,Issue.11,November.2017
www.ijastems.org Page 11
International Journal of Advanced Scientific Technologies in Engineering and Management Sciences (IJASTEMS-ISSN: 2454-356X) Volume.3,Issue.11,November.2017
www.ijastems.org Page 12
International Journal of Advanced Scientific Technologies in Engineering and Management Sciences (IJASTEMS-ISSN: 2454-356X) Volume.3,Issue.11,November.2017
Table 1.5: Historical and Site measured flow data flow is around 0.20 m3/s based on the fact that there is no
Site Historic Difference depleted reach on the river flow throughout the year as
measureme al Design in flow (Site shown on Figure 1.3 below;
nt river average base measured
flow river flow QD Historical)
Month average flow
(Sept.2015 (1985- [m3/s]
[m3/s]
- 2007)
Aug.2016)
[m3/s] [m3/s]
January 0.84 0.89 0.35 -0.05
February 0.83 0.82 0.35 0.01
March 1.22 1.14 0.35 0.08
April 2.30 2.66 0.35 -0.36
May 1.59 1.63 0.35 -0.04
June 0.90 0.96 0.35 -0.06
July 0.74 0.76 0.35 -0.02
August 0.66 0.68 0.35 -0.02
Figure 1.3: Flow comparison between the measured data
September 0.62 0.64 0.35 -0.02
and historical data
October 0.60 0.60 0.35 0
November 1.05 0.98 0.35 0.07
The minimum discharge amount that may be available
December 1.01 0.92 0.35 0.09
throughout the year for both sites in measured data and
Average 1.030 1.057 0.35 historical data when not considering a pondage for small
water storage is around 0.6m3/s. In consideration of the
Note: residual flow the value of 0.4m3/s will be used on the initial
The negative values are the ones below minimum flow system design as the discharge design base flow from the
value and positive values are the ones above minimum flow river. See Figure 1.4 below for details of the annual river
value. hydrograph;
www.ijastems.org Page 13
International Journal of Advanced Scientific Technologies in Engineering and Management Sciences (IJASTEMS-ISSN: 2454-356X) Volume.3,Issue.11,November.2017
III. CONCLUSION
In determination of run-of-river flow suitable for micro
hydropower plants design discharge, provisions have to be
Figure 1.5: Site measured monthly average flow considered for environmental flow which is the water that
must be allowed to flow downstream on the river at the
length of the penstock. Based on the study data, the
Hydrograph for hydropower development can be further
available water flow discharge from the Hhaynu river which
represented in detail for 90 days continuous river discharge
is suitable for micro hydropower plant and available
as shown on Figure 1.6 below;
throughout the year is around 0.4 m 3/s (Q100%). From the
base flow without considering water for the hydropower,
the flow at Q100% is 0.6m3/s on which the provision of
environmental flow accounted for is 33.3% of the original
base flow. So whenever applicable in small rivers, the
minimum provision for environmental flow may be
accounted for at least 30% [10] of the river flow in most
small rivers with similar flow pattern like Hhaynu in order
to keep ecosystem in a fair ecological condition.
REFERENCES
[1] Biemans, H., Haddeland, I., Kabat, P., Ludwig, F., Hutjes,
R., Henke, J., von Bloh, W., and Gerten, D.: Impact of
reservoirs on river discharge and irrigation water supply
during the 20th century, Water Resour. Res., 47, W03509,
doi: 10.1029/2009WR008929, 2011
[2] Dudgeon, D.: Large-scale hydrological changes in tropical
Figure 1.6: 90 days site measured river flow
Asia. Prospects for riverine biodiversity, Bioscience, 50,
793-806, 2000
From the hydrograph and flow duration curve, it is noted [3] Vliet, M. H., Ludwig, F., and Kabat, P.: Global streamflow
that the minimum river discharge at any given day is around and thermal habitats of freshwater fishes under climate
0.6 m3/s. So, in considering residual flow, the minimum change, Climatic Change, 121, 739 754,
water availability for hydropower generation from the river doi:10.1007/s10584-013-0976-0, 2013
is <= 0.4 m3/s and this value is the feasible discharge that is [4] A. V. Pastor, F. Ludwig, H. Biemans, H. Hoff, and P. Kabat.:
Accounting for environmental flow requirement in global
reliable and available throughout the years, thus why it is
water assessments. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences,
taken as a design discharge for the hydropower system in doi:10.5194/hess-18, 5041-5059, 2014
this research project. [5] UK Environment Agency. Guidance for run-of-river
hydropower. December 2013
[6] British Hydropower Association. A guide to UK Mini-Hydro
Development v3.0. October 2012. www.british-hydro.org
[7] [AHEC-IITR, 1.3 Project hydrology and installed capacity
Standard/manual/guideline with support from Ministry of
New and Renewable Energy, Roorkee, August 2013].
[8] Hughes, D. A.: Providing hydrological information and data
analysis tools for the determination of ecological instream
flow requirements for South African Rivers, Journal of
Hydrology, 241, 140-151, doi: 10.1016/S0022-
1694(00)00378-4, 2001
[9] Nash, J. E. and Sutcliffe, J. V.: River flow forecasting through
conceptual models part i a discussion of principles, Journal
of Hydrology, 10, 282-290, doi:10.1016/0022-
Figure 1.7: Three months average site measured river flow 1694(70)90255-6, 1970
www.ijastems.org Page 14
International Journal of Advanced Scientific Technologies in Engineering and Management Sciences (IJASTEMS-ISSN: 2454-356X) Volume.3,Issue.11,November.2017
[10] Hanasaki, N., Kanae, S., Oki, T., Masuda, K., Motoya, K., Model description and input meteorological forcing,
Shirakawa, N., Shen, Y., and Tanaka, L.: An integrated Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 12, 1007-1025,
model for the assessment of global water resources Part 1: doi:10.5194/hess-12-1007-2008, 2008
www.ijastems.org Page 15