Publications related to Small hydro

Dynamic environmental flows using hydrodynamic-based solutions for sustainable hydropower

Water diversions from rivers and torrents for anthropic uses of the resource alter the natural flow regime. As a measure, environmental flows have been prescribed and often are enforced by law to follow policies (e.g., minimal flow, proportional redistribu ...

CRC Press/Balkema2023

The need for a unified European hydropower voice

Anton Schleiss, Javier García Hernández

The new EU proect ETIP Hydropower (September 2022 - August 2025) will closely link the EERA Joint Programme Hydropower to the new European Technology and Innovation Platform (ETIP) for hydropower. It succeeds the HYDROPOWER EUROPE project (2018-2022) which ...

2023

Numerical simulations of Pelton turbine flow to predict large head variation influence

François Avellan, Cécile Münch-Alligné, Siamak Alimirzazadeh, Steve Crettenand

In the framework of the new feed-in-tariff system in Switzerland for Small Hydropower Plants (SHP), the aim of the SmallFLEX project, led by HES-SO Valais and performed in collaboration with EPFL, WSL, EAWAG, PVE, and FMV, is to show how SHP can provide wi ...

IOP PUBLISHING LTD2021

Production flexibility of small run-of-river power plants: KWGO smart-storage case study

Pedro Filipe De Almeida Manso, Vlad Hasmatuchi, Jessica Zordan, Matthieu Dreyer, Siamak Alimirzazadeh, Steve Crettenand

In the framework of the new Swiss feed-in-tariff system for Small Hydropower Plants (SHP), the aim of the SmallFLEX project, led by HES-SO Valais and performed in collaboration with EPFL, WSL, EAWAG, PVE and FMV, is to show how SHP can provide winter peak ...

IOP PUBLISHING LTD2021

DuoTurbo: Implementation of a Counter-Rotating Hydroturbine for Energy Recovery in Drinking Water Networks

François Avellan, Vlad Hasmatuchi, Cécile Münch-Alligné, Daniel Biner, Samuel Chevailler

To enhance the sustainability of water supply systems, the development of new technologies for micro scale hydropower remains an active field of research. The present paper deals with the implementation of a new micro-hydroelectric system for drinking wate ...

2021

Computational parametric analysis of the design of cross-flow turbines under constraints

François Avellan, Sebastián Camilo Leguizamón Sarmiento

The cross-flow turbine is an attractive technology for small-scale hydropower generation thanks to its low capital cost and relatively high efficiency even under partial discharge operating conditions. It has been proposed that this kind of turbine can be ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2020

Hill chart modelling using the Hermite polynomial chaos expansion for the performance prediction of pumps running as turbines

François Avellan, Loïc Andolfatto, João Nuno Gomes Borga Delgado

Pumps running as turbines are suitable hydraulic machines for micro hydropower applications. The selection of the proper pumps to install in a given site still remains a major challenge, as pump manufacturers do not provide the characteristic curves data i ...

Elsevier2019

Hydropower Plants Frequency Regulation Depending on Upper Reservoir Water Level

Philippe Allenbach, Christophe Nicolet

This paper presents a novel method of hydro power plant operation, based on the control of the injectors’ or wicked gates opening time as a function of the upper reservoir level. In this way, a faster power injection, depending on the current water level o ...

2019

The Hydropower Europe forum devoted to the development of hydropower in the next decades

Anton Schleiss

HYDROPOWER-EUROPE is a project selected by European Commission after the call H2020 LC-SC3-CC-4-2018, whose the scope is “bringing together stakeholders of the hydropower sector in a forum” to develop a roadmap of research and innovation for new hydropower ...

2019

Analysis of emerging technologies in the hydropower sector

François Avellan

The paper reviews recent research and development activities in the field of hydropower technology. It covers emerging and advanced technologies to mitigate flow instabilities (active and passive approach) as well as emerging magneto-rheological control te ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2019

Introducing flexibility in alpine small hydropower plants using smart storage

Pedro Filipe De Almeida Manso, Jessica Zordan, Steve Crettenand

Small hydropower plants can improve their proficiency if they are able to become more flexible on power production, answering the need of peak energy demand, following the needs of the energy market and providing ancillary services in the electricity suppl ...

Hydropower&Dams, Aqua Media International2019

Potential increase in energy storage capacity in the Swiss Alps to support the massive development of renewables: Case study of the Grande Dixence hydropower scheme

Anton Schleiss, Pedro Filipe De Almeida Manso, Jérôme François Sylvain Dujardin, Blaise Monay

Only 42 % of the mean annual production of large hydropower plants in the Swiss Alps is stored in their reservoirs. Once the reservoirs are full at the end of the summer semester, plants are operated as run-on-the-river in order to avoid spilling. A signif ...

2019

Pumps running as turbines for energy recovery in water supply systems

João Nuno Gomes Borga Delgado

Pressurised water supply systems are infrastructures that offer a potential for energy recovery in locations where these systems operate with an excessive pressure. The integration of micro hydropower plants for energy recovery is a challenge, as these sys ...

EPFL2018

Renovation of hydraulic power plant: how to select the best technical options?

François Avellan, Christophe Nicolet, Christian Landry, Loïc Andolfatto, Joao Gomes Pereira Junior

With the Energy Strategy 2050, Switzerland wishes to focus on balanced utilization of hydropower potentials and new renewable energy sources to cope with nuclear energy phasing out. Integration of large amounts of new renewable energies such as wind and so ...

2018

Monitoring a Francis Turbine Operating Conditions

François Avellan, Loïc Andolfatto, Joao Gomes Pereira Junior

Francis turbines are designed for a specific set of operating conditions that is particular to each hydropower plant site. It allows this type of turbine to extract as much hydraulic power as possible, as long as they are operating in the right conditions. ...

2018

Flow measurement for the design optimization of fish pass entries in a run of river hydropower plant

Giovanni De Cesare, Cédric Bron, Pierre Bourqui

The International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (ICPR) has set the objective of guarantying the upstream migration of the salmons up to Basel, Switzerland, at horizon 2020. One of the last dams to be equipped is the one of Rhinau, in France. T ...

2018

Assessment of hydropower potential in wastewater systems and application to Switzerland

Anton Schleiss, Luca Rossi, Pedro Filipe De Almeida Manso, Irene Almeida Samora, Philippe Heller

Energy recovery through local hydropower generation is a way of coping with high electricity expenditures in wastewater systems (WWS). Installing small hydropower plants within WWS is already in some countries eligible for incentive policy mechanisms to re ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2017

Hydropower Design under Uncertainties

Felix Oberrauch

The design of hydropower is determined by estimates and long-term forecasts. These forecasts and estimates are highly uncertain and make performance evaluation and design choices challenging. Performance evaluation of hydropower projects is affected by a n ...

EPFL2017

Dynamic water allocation policies improve the global efficiency of storage systems

Paolo Perona, Amin Niayifar

Water impoundment by dams strongly affects the river natural flow regime, its attributes and the related ecosystem biodiversity. Fostering the sustainability of water uses e.g., hydropower systems thus implies searching for innovative operational policies ...

Elsevier2017

Assessment of Power Swings in Hydropower Plants Through High-Order Modeling and Eigenanalysis

Christophe Nicolet, Pedro Camilo de Oliveira e Silva, Basile Kawkabani

POWER plants are subject to introduce disturbances in the power grid, resulting from interactions with the dynamical behavior of the energy source subsystem. In the case of hydropower plants when used to compensate for variations of power generation and co ...

2017