Preventive Maintenance of Hydro Power Plants Preventive maintenance of any power system is the key for long life and reduced break down. It enhances the power output and reduces the cost of power generation. Following is the schedule of maintenance. Monthly maintenance : Check for leakages, servo meter connections, turbine shaft, lubrication, oil pump and … Read more

Plants Based on Quantity of Water Available Run-off river plants without pondage : These type of hydro plants do not store water and use the water directly taken from the river. Since there is no control on the availability of water from the river, the power output of such plants fluctuates widely, hence, the utility … Read more

Plants Based on Type of Loads Base load plants : These type of hydro power plant can take up load on base portion of load curve of the power system. These plants are generally of large capacity to meet almost the constant load. The runoff river and storage type plants are used as base load … Read more

Plants Based on Availability of Head Low Head Plants : Hydro power plants are called as low head plants in case the available water head is less than 30 meters. In such plants the water is stored by constructing a dam across a river and the power plant is constructed at the base of the … Read more

Conduits (Canal, Flumes, Tunnel, Pipe line, Penstock) A headrace is a channel which leads the water to the turbine and the tail race is a channel which leads the water from the turbine to the river. Combination of various types of conduits are shown in Figure these are as follows : Canal : It is … Read more

Type of Spillways As indicated above, the spillways are provided to discharge the flood water during rainy season if the water level rise above the designed maximum level in the reservoir. It saves the dam from damage. Types of Spillway are : Solid gravity or overall spill way Chute or Trough spillway Side channel spillway … Read more

Schematic Layout of Hydro Electric Power Plant Q. What is layout of hydroelectric power plant? Q. How is hydro power plant constructed? Q. What are the different parts of a hydroelectric power plant? A schematic layout of hydro-electric power plant is shown in Figure A large amount of water is collected during rainy season in … Read more

Selection of Site for Hydro Electric Power Plants Investigations are made for selecting a suitable site for construction of dam and installation of hydraulic turbines. The basic characteristics of a good site are to have a large catchment area, high average rainfall and steep gradient in the area to obtain high head. Once the location … Read more

Mass Curve A mass curve is a plot between the cumulative volume of water that can be stored from stream flow and the time in day, weeks or in months.  Such a plot helps in designing the size of the storage required for hydro-electric power plants. Also, with the help of mass curves it is … Read more