Working of hydropower plant

Inside recent years as a result of tremendous development and integration of renewable energy resources in Europe, hydraulic turbines and pump-turbines are foundational to technical elements to subscribe to renewable power production and compensate for the stochastic nature of this variable power sources, preserving thus the electrical grid security.

Consequently, the overarching objective for the task may be the improved hydropower plant worth by extending the flexibility of the operating range, whilst improving its lasting supply. More particularly, the task aims to learn the hydraulic, technical and electric dynamics of a few hydraulic devices designs – fresh and seawater turbines, reversible pump-turbines – under a protracted array of functions : from overload to deep component load. A two-pronged modelling method will rely on numerical simulations including reduced-scale real design tests. Upon suitable concurrence between simulations and reduced-scale actual designs outcomes, validation will require place on very carefully chosen physical hydropower plants correctly loaded with monitoring methods.

To deal with this committed analysis program, a consortium has-been put together featuring three leading hydraulic turbines, storage space pumps, reversible pump-turbine and electric equipment makers, SME, plus world-renowned academic institutions. Extensive tests both on both experimental rigs and real energy flowers is going to be carried out being verify the acquired methodological and numerical outcomes.