Design and simulation of a mini hydropower scheme for Bushika sub county in Bududa district.

Abstract

Mini-hydro-electric power is both an efficient and reliable form of clean source of renewable energy. It can be an excellent method of harnessing renewable energy from small rivers and streams. The mini-hydro project designed to be a run-of-river type, because it requires very little or no reservoir in order to power the turbine. The water will run straight through the turbine and back into the river or stream to use it for the other purposes. This has a minimal environmental impact on the local ecosystem. The design procedure of mini-hydropower plant was implemented by Visual Basic software to calculate all the design parameters. The choice of the turbine type depending mainly on the site head and flow rate. The turbine. Power and speed were directly proportional with the site head but there were specific points for maximum turbine power and speed with the variation of the site water flow rate-. The turbine efficiency could range from 80 to 95 percent depending on the turbine type and the generator efficiency about 97 percent. The design study showed that construction of mini-hydroelectric project was feasible in the project site and there were no major problems apparent at the design and implementation stages of the mini-hydro-electric power plant. Wherever possible, the system components that were designed are also illustrated with AutoCAD.