Sustainable operation of small hydropower schemes in changing climatic conditions

The main objective of constructing a Small Hydro Power Plant (SHPP) is to generate electric power while facilitating water supply to irrigation fields or drinking from a storage dam or run of river scheme. But hydropower plant is usually built with the consideration of past hydrological regimes and do not take climate change into account during its planning stage. Therefore, selection of hydro generating units with the modern technology and the consideration of climate change are essential to allow SHPP for the sustained operation. This paper presents the techno-economic evaluation of fixed and Variable Speed Technology (VST) in a 4 MW SHPP, proposed in Erach dam (India). Selection of hydrogenating units, with minimum installation cost, in consideration of climate change is the main focus of present work. Turbine speed is adjusted in accordance with the water discharge to maintain good efficiency at partial generation. Power Electronic Converter (PEC) is connected in stator circuit of synchronous generator to meet the grid requirements. This study reveals that VST helps in reduction of number of hydro generating units to achieve the targeted energy generation which leads to significant reduction of installation cost and increase the sustainability of plant at changing climatic conditions.