Objective
Construction of 10 small hydro plants in the biggest irrigation canal of Spain in a close cooperation with the irrigators and avoiding interferences with the normal use of the canal. In order to ensure the absence of interferences the design includes the following characteristics:
- Use of constant level gates moved by hydrostatic pressure to ensure that the upstream water level don't vary when the plant is stopped even when there is not electricity or human presence in the plant.
- By pass concept design of the plants with the construction of a parallel canal or pipe to the existing one and remaining this one untouched ensuring the normal flow of water during the works or the stops of plant.
- Preassembled electrical equipment to ensure a rapid construction with minimun interferences.
- Centralized control of the plants in the irrigators association house in order to ensure the coordination of the electricity production and the rrigation.
- Substitution of the existing irrigation.
The production of energy until 31st of August has been 5.088.660 Kwh. The expected production for a normal year is 12.802.942 kWh then the production is a 40% of the normal production. We have to consider that only 8 of the 10 plants have been finished, at the same time none of the plants has started the first day of the irrigation season and at the same time there is a period of test with frequent stops for adjustements. The flows passing through the canal are the expected and even higher. The power obtained is on the average a 10% lower than expected with flows circulating in the canal. The reason for this decrease on power can be the loss of water for adjustement in the gates and the necessary adjustments on the equipments. The monetary value of the energy is 57.526.515 ptas. The price obtained per Kwh is 11.31 ptas which is less than the 11.79 expected due to the decrease of the energy tariffs in the year 1998. The cost of operation is similar to the expected.
The Canal de Aragon y Cataluna it s the biggest irrigation canal in Spain supplying water to 105.000 has. and to 25.000 farmers. It also supply water to various cities and industries. It has normally a constant and small slope and to adapt to the topography of the area there exist in the canal various tranches with high slope which can be used to produce energy with small hydro plants. This is the main purpose of this project. There has been problems with existing plants in irrigation canals because they interfere with the normal use of the canal. The cause of the interference are normally the stops of the plants. In this moment due to the fixed weirs of these plants the water stop flowing to the downstream zone because the amount of water which pass over these weirs is proportional to the heigth of water over the weir (Q=C@H3Q). At the firs moment this heigth is zero and then there is no flow of water. It takes a long time to get the height necessary to let pass the existing flowof water in the canal and during this time there is a increase of supply to the upstream zone and a reduction to the downstram one. This situation creates grave problems to the irrigators. The design of the plants of this project has been conceived to avoid these interferences. The scheme is as follows: At the beginning of the fall or rapid there exist a bifurcation with two branches, one with the existing canal and the other with the new paralell canal or pipe. In this canal or pipe is placed the Kaplan turbine which is conected to the generator through a gear box. In the existing canal is placed the constant level gate which is normally closed allowing the water pass through the turbine. When the turbine stops the gate which is very sensible to small changes in water level star to open and allows the continuity of the flow of water trough the existing canal. There exist also in the plant the electrical equipment which is preasembled in order to reduce the time of erection and to make it compatible with the irrigation season. To ensure the coordination of the irrigation process and the electricity production there will be a centre of control of the plants situated in the irrigators association headquarters where will be received any infommation or alarm of the plants and where they can be stopped or started up depending on the irrigation needs or conditions. There exist also the transmision lines for the electricity.
Context of innovative technology: The constant level gate has never been used in a small hydro plant like the only safety element permitting at the same time to close during the nommal operation of the plant and maintaining constant the upstream water level. It is necessary to find the optimal disposition of the gate in order to avoid two main problems one the possibility of creating waves upstream and the possibility of creating unstability on the rapid downstream.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologycivil engineeringwater engineeringirrigation
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyplanetary sciencesplanetary geology
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesclassical mechanicsfluid mechanicsfluid statics
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Call for proposal
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DEM - Demonstration contractsCoordinator
28006 Madrid
Spain