To prove that there are economical advantages on refurbishing and uprighting old hydromills with small head; specifically the return time on investment will be good for very small hydroelectrical plants still existing, by using hydraulic machines derived by cross-flow turbines and self-consuming energy, in remote users, previous an exchange agreement with the main electrical company (ENEL).

1) Innovative technology.
This project tries to prove that it is better to use cross-flow turbines in refurbishing small mills that are located in rivers with big variability of flow rate. Moreover the selfconsumption of the energy produced in remote users by an exchanging agreement with ENEL s.p.a. will create the economical profit for hydroelectric exploitation of old hydromills with small head.
2) Context in which the technologies is opperating.
There are old hydromills in italian mountains which were used for milling cereals. A lot of these sites have not been destroyed in time and still exist the cross over the river, the by-pass channel and the sluice. The little power that was necessary for milling and the consistent variability of flow rate cause difficulties on re-use of these sites. The project improves a new way of exploitation of mills in Portico di Romagna (head = 7.5 m; median flow rate of the river = 4 mc/s).
3) Economics aspect.
The power of the plant will be 50 or100 kW depending upon the connection at 380 V grid or 15000 V grid. The annual energy saving will be (for 100 kW plant) about E = 450000 kWh/yr. Using the energy in remote users we could save 180 Lit/kWh: so the annual economics saving will be 81 million lire. Since the maximum expected investment cost is 580 million lire, the expected payback is 7.2 years.