Technical Feasibility Study of Pumped Storage Hydro Power Plant on Lake Kivu

Abstract

Energy plays an important role in the global economy and the significant portion of global energy demand is met by burning fossil fuels which are non-renewable and with limited lifespan. One of the difficulties the electrical industry is facing currently is the production and efficiency utilization of energy. Due to environmental issues, the entire world is encouraged to develop different renewable energy technologies in electrical power generation to save the planet. The energy is managed well by bringing in an efficiency, reliable and environmentally friendly storage system. A very well-known worldwide energy storage technology is chemical battery. However, due to short life span of chemical batteries, the intermittency of solar energy, and its environmental issues, pumped hydroelectric energy storage technology has been found advantageous. In this paper, the study and analysis of power generation and load demand on the Rwandan network have been done to know the availability of renewable energy which needs to be stored during light loads and released during peak loads hours. As per the study, there are 204 MWh which can be stored on daily basis. After concluding that Rwandan electric network has renewable energies to be stored during light loads, the survey around Lake Kivu on Rwandan side to find out the candidate places suited for pumped hydroelectric energy storage have been carried out where one site among five candidate sites has been selected as the best-suited place. Then, 36 MW pumped hydropower plant has been designed and its operational economic feasibility study has been also done. Simulation with MATLAB/Simulink has been carried out. The study results show that currently having the storage system will remove completely 27.6% of diesel power generation on Rwandan electric network. Moreover, the studies confirmed better operability of the system with a round trip efficiency of 81%.