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Energies
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Energy Conversion System – Small Hydropower Plants
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Energy Conversion System – Small Hydropower Plants

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A3: Wind, Wave and Tidal Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 May 2022) | Viewed by 21506
Submit your paper and select the Journal “Energies” and the Special Issue “Energy Conversion System – Small Hydropower Plants” via: https://susy.mdpi.com/user/manuscripts/upload?journal=energies. Please contact the guest editor or the journal editor ([email protected]) for any queries.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Tomasz Wegiel

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cracow University of Technology, 31-155 Krakow, Poland
Interests: PM machines; variable speed generation; small hydropower plants
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Dariusz Borkowski

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cracow University of Technology, 31-155 Krakow, Poland
Interests: hydroelectric power generation; variable speed operation; small hydropower plants

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Hydropower is an important part of global energy production (estimated in 2018 to be approximately 16% of the world’s electricity production and accounting for some 60% of renewable electricity production) and has seen strong growth in recent years. Despite the large capacity already installed, there is still great potential for further development. It is estimated that only 10% of the total viable hydropower potential has been used. The increasing problem with grid stability affected by the fluctuating power from RESs strengthens hydropower’s position among reliable energy sources. Today, small hydropower plants (SHPs) are attractive sources due to the low administrative and executive costs, short construction time, and small environmental impact. Furthermore, in the form of decentralized energy sources located close to their customers, SHPs improve grid stability by diversifying the electricity system and reducing transmission losses.

The aim of this Special Issue is to encourage scientists to publish their experimental and theoretical research on topics related to energy conversion systems dedicated to small hydropower plants. The focuses of this Special Issue include, without being limited to, the following themes:

  • New solutions of energy conversion systems;
  • Power generation efficiency;
  • Microgrids to serve the local loads;
  • Hybrid hydro power systems;
  • Pomp-as-turbine solutions;
  • Variable speed operation in hydropower.

It is our pleasure to invite you to submit your original work to this Special Issue. We look forward to receiving your outstanding research.

Prof. Dr. Tomasz Wegiel
Prof. Dr. Dariusz Borkowski
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • small hydropower plants (SHP)
  • variable speed turbines
  • SHP energy conversion systems
  • SHP development trends
  • SHP management practice
  • SHP new solutions

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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31 pages, 23503 KiB  
Article
Alternative Solutions for Small Hydropower Plants
by Damian Liszka, Zbigniew Krzemianowski, Tomasz Węgiel, Dariusz Borkowski, Andrzej Polniak, Konrad Wawrzykowski and Artur Cebula
Energies 2022, 15(4), 1275; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15041275 - 10 Feb 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3356
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 [...] Read more.
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. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Conversion System – Small Hydropower Plants)
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14 pages, 3893 KiB  
Article
Archimedes Screw Design: An Analytical Model for Rapid Estimation of Archimedes Screw Geometry
by Arash YoosefDoost and William David Lubitz
Energies 2021, 14(22), 7812; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14227812 - 22 Nov 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 9515
Abstract
In designing Archimedes screws, determination of the geometry is among the fundamental questions that may affect many aspects of the Archimedes screw powerplant. Most plants are run-of-river and highly depend on local flow duration curves that vary from river to river. An ability [...] Read more.
In designing Archimedes screws, determination of the geometry is among the fundamental questions that may affect many aspects of the Archimedes screw powerplant. Most plants are run-of-river and highly depend on local flow duration curves that vary from river to river. An ability to rapidly produce realistic estimations for the initial design of a site-specific Archimedes screw plant helps to facilitate and accelerate the optimization of the powerplant design. An analytical method in the form of a single equation was developed to rapidly and easily estimate the Archimedes screw geometry for a specific site. This analytical equation was developed based on the accepted, proved or reported common designs characteristics of Archimedes screws. It was then evaluated by comparison of equation predictions to existing Archimedes screw hydropower plant installations. The evaluation results indicate a high correlation and reasonable relative difference. Use of the equation eliminates or simplifies several design steps and loops and accelerates the development of initial design estimations of Archimedes screw generators dramatically. Moreover, it helps to dramatically reduce one of the most significant burdens of small projects: the nonscalable initial investigation costs and enables rapid estimation of the feasibility of Archimedes screw powerplants at many potential sites. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Conversion System – Small Hydropower Plants)
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19 pages, 4588 KiB  
Article
Research on Hydraulic Conversion Technology of Small Ocean Current Turbines for Low-Flow Current Energy Generation
by Wenbin Su, Hongbo Wei, Penghua Guo, Qiao Hu, Mengyuan Guo, Yuanjie Zhou, Dayu Zhang, Zhufeng Lei and Chaohui Wang
Energies 2021, 14(20), 6499; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14206499 - 11 Oct 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1933
Abstract
Ocean energy is a kind of renewable energy contained in seawater, which has the characteristics of large total reserves, sustainable use, and its being green and clean. Influenced by rising oil prices and global climate change, an increasing number of countries are attaching [...] Read more.
Ocean energy is a kind of renewable energy contained in seawater, which has the characteristics of large total reserves, sustainable use, and its being green and clean. Influenced by rising oil prices and global climate change, an increasing number of countries are attaching great importance to the strategic position of ocean energy in the future energy sector, and are formulating national ocean energy development roadmaps and conducting research and development on ocean energy technologies. Ocean current energy is a widely existing kind of ocean energy with abundant reserves. However, due to the low current velocity in most of the deep sea, low current energy has not been effectively exploited. In this paper, the Blade element momentum (BEM) theory based on Vortex column theory is used to design a special airfoil for low current energy applications, and a prototype turbine with rotor diameter of 4.46 m and tip speed ratio (TSR) of 6 is fabricated. In order to achieve stable electric power output, this paper designs a hydraulic conversion power generation control system with flexible control, and the hydraulic system working pressure designed to 21 MPa. In this paper, we conducted towing experiments on the prototype of an ocean current energy turbine, with hydraulic transmission and a control power generation system applied to the low flow rate, and achieved the target of hydraulic motor speed in the range of 14.7~15.9 r/min and steady-state speed accuracy in the range of ±1%. The research conducted in this paper can provide a research basis for the efficient exploitation of low-flow ocean current energy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Conversion System – Small Hydropower Plants)
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17 pages, 5080 KiB  
Article
Run-of-the-River Hydro-PV Battery Hybrid System as an Energy Supplier for Local Loads
by Dariusz Borkowski, Dariusz Cholewa and Anna Korzeń
Energies 2021, 14(16), 5160; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14165160 - 20 Aug 2021
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3226
Abstract
Hybrid hydro energy systems are usually analysed with pumped hydro storage systems, which can facilitate energy accumulation from other sources. Despite the lack of water storage, run-of-the-river hydropower plants are also attractive for hybrid systems owing to their low investment cost, short construction [...] Read more.
Hybrid hydro energy systems are usually analysed with pumped hydro storage systems, which can facilitate energy accumulation from other sources. Despite the lack of water storage, run-of-the-river hydropower plants are also attractive for hybrid systems owing to their low investment cost, short construction time, and small environmental impact. In this study, a hybrid system that contains run-of-the-river small hydro power plants (SHPs), PV systems, and batteries to serve local loads is examined. Low-power and low-head schemes that use variable-speed operation are considered. The novelty of this study is the proposal of a dedicated steady-state model of the run-of-the-river hydropower plant that is suitable for energy production analysis under different hydrological conditions. The presented calculations based on a real SHP of 150 kW capacity have shown that a simplified method can result in a 43% overestimation of the produced energy. Moreover, a one-year analysis of a hybrid system operation using real river flow data showed that the flow averaging period has a significant influence on the energy balance results. The system energy deficiency and surplus can be underestimated by approximately 25% by increasing the averaging time from day to month. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Conversion System – Small Hydropower Plants)
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10 pages, 1968 KiB  
Case Report
Social Enterprise in Small Hydropower (SHP) Owned by a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) between a Food Cooperative and a Social Venture Company; a Case Study of the 20 kW Shiraito (Step3) SHP in Itoshima City, Fukuoka (Japan)
by Zafar Alam, Yoshinobu Watanabe, Shazia Hanif, Tatsuro Sato and Tokihiko Fujimoto
Energies 2021, 14(20), 6727; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14206727 - 15 Oct 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2123
Abstract
There was an unprecedented growth of SHP (small hydropower) in Japan during recent years because the government has provided a high FIT (USD 0.32/kWh) for SHP development projects of less than 200 kW. The public and private sectors are committed to harnessing this [...] Read more.
There was an unprecedented growth of SHP (small hydropower) in Japan during recent years because the government has provided a high FIT (USD 0.32/kWh) for SHP development projects of less than 200 kW. The public and private sectors are committed to harnessing this natural energy to achieve the renewable energy goal as well as to improve local communities social and economic conditions. This paper will discuss about renewable energy initiatives by a food corporation enterprise (FCOOP) based in Fukuoka prefecture of Japan to reduce their net carbon emissions. A detailed approach for social enterprises-based SHP development has been discussed which will be a role model concept for other social enterprises in Japan and in the world that are willing to reduce CO2 emissions. Also, this kind of project connects urban stake holders with local community where resources are available and it leads to development of the local community living standards. As a demonstrated example, a case study of a 20 kW SHP installed in Japan by a FCOOP has been discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Conversion System – Small Hydropower Plants)
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