Potential Assessment, Techno-Economic Feasibility Study and Modeling of a Micro Hydropower Plant to Power the Street Light Using Akaki River
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Date
2023-10
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Ethiopia, one of the east African nations, has an abundance hydroelectric resource potential due to the abundant water resources in the country. However, in recent years, demand for electricity has grown, especially in urban areas. Therefore, it is essential to make optimum use of the national resources for the improvement of electrical energy. The main objective of this thesis is modeling, simulation, assessment of potential, and techno-economic viability of a micro-hydropower system for the electrification of street lighting in the case of Big Akaki River in Ethiopia. The approach used to achieve the objective involves understanding the fundamental operating principle and reviewing prior works, which are done as part of the literature review. The yearly flow data was collected from Ethiopia's office of water, irrigation, and energy and the head data obtained from GPS visualizer. Next based on these data modeling and selection of scheme components including techno economic viability of the system using RETScreen and MATLAB SIMULINK was done. Moreover, Flow duration curve, turbine efficiency curve, Power duration curve, from RETScreen and hydropower simulation from MATLAB SIMULINK results are included. For this research the gross head of 2.8m and design flow rates of 0.459m3/s, were considered. Based on the net head and design flow rate, Kaplan turbine was selected for this study. Consequently, the design parameters like the turbine speed, runner discharge diameter, specific speed and the net mechanical output was found to be 568.3rpm, 390mm, 515.5rpm and 7.41KW respectively. All in all, the systems water to wire efficiency of 53.13% was optimized to be greater than the demand at the selected area for street light. For the cost of the study, RETScreen software was applied also used to estimate total cost of the system to be $275,400, with a pay-back period of 15.6 years and an overall positive net present value of $30,779 overall.
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RETScreen, MATLAB SIMULINK, Simulation, Design Flow Rate, Kaplan Turbine, Turbine speed, Runner Discharge Diameter, Mechanical Power