Nationai Power & Energy Conference (PECon) 2004 Proceedings, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
220
Basic Design Aspects of Micro Hydro Power Plant
and Its Potential Development in Malaysia
Mohibullah, Mohd. Amran Mohd. Radzi and Mohd Iqbal Abdul Hakim
Abstract- Hydro power plants convert potential energy or
water into electricity, It is a clean source of energy .The water after
generating electrical power is available for irrigation and other
purposes. The first use of moving water to produce electricity was
a waterwheel on the Fox River in Wisconsin in 1882. Hydro power
continued to play a major role in the expansion of electrical service
early in this century around the world. Hydro electric power
plants generate from few kW to thousands of MW. They are
classified as Micro hydro power plants for the generating capacity
less than 100 KW. Hydro electric power plants are much more
reliable and efficient as a renewable and clean source than the
fossil fuel power plants. This resulted in upgrading of small to
medium sized hydro electric generating stations wherever there
was au adequate supply of moving water and a need for electricity.
As electricity demand soared in the middle of this century and the
efficiency of coal and oil fueled power plants increased, smnH
hydro plants fell out of favor. Mega projects of Hydro power
plants were developed. The majority of ihese power plants
involved large dams which flooded big areas of land to provide
water storage and therefore a constant supply of elcctricity. In
recent years, the environmental impacts of such large hydro
projects are being identified as a cause for concern. 11 is becoming
increasingly difficult for developers i o build new dams because of
opposition from environmentalists and people living on the land to
be Flooded. Therrore the need has arisen to go for the small scale
hydro electric power plants in the range of mini and micro hydro
power plants. There are no Micro Hydro power plants in Malaysia
and the smallest category of hydro power plants in Malaysia is
Mini Hydro with a capacity between 500 kW to 100 kW. This
paper discusses the conceptual design and development of a micro
hydro power plant .The overall estimation and caiculation of a 50
kW power plant bas been carried out. Software is also developed
using MATLAB to calculate the tot31 head, discharge rare, type of
turbine for the micro hydro power pbants, once t h e capacity is
known.
Index Terms - Hydro power, Fox River, Saw Mills, Niagars
Fails. Software.
r. INTRODUCTION
Hydro power plants convert potential energy which
contained in falling water into electricity. The basic principle of
hydro power is that if water can be channelised from a higher
level to a lower level, then the resulting potential energy of
water can be used to do work. If the water head is allowed to
move a mechanical component then that movement involves the
conversion of the potential energy of the water into mechanical
energy. Hydro turbines convert water pressure into mechanical
shaft power, which can be used to drive a generator or some
Mohibullah, Mohd. Amran Mohd. Radzi and Mohd lqbal Abdul Hakim are
with Depariment of Electncal and Electronics Engineering, Faculty of
Engineering, University Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor. Darul
Ehsan,Malaysia (email: mohibl9S,~.enl?.iinm.ed~i.my)
0-7803-8724-4/041$20.00 02004 IEEE.
other useful device. Hydro power is a very clean source of
energy and only uses the water, the water after generating
electrical power, is availabte for other purposes. Hydro
power is currently the world's largest renewable source of
electricity, accounting to 6% of worldwide energy supply
or about 15% of the world's electricity. Traditionally it is a
cheap and clean source of electricity 113.
The use of a falling water as a source of energy is
known for a long time. In the ancient times water wheels
were used already, but only at the beginning of dic
nineteenth century with the invention o f the hydro turbine.
The first recorded use of water power was a clock,
built a r o m d 250 BC. Since that time, humans have uscd
falling water to provide powcr for saw mills, as well as a
host of other applications. The first of many hydro'clcclric
power plants at Niagara Falls was completed shortly
thereafter. Hydro power continued to p h y a major role i i i
the expansion of electrical service early in this century
around the world. Contemporary hydro clectric powcr
plants generate anywhcrc from a few kW, enough for a
single residence, 10 thousands of MW, power enough to
supply a large city.
Early hydro elcctric power plants were niuch niorc
reliable and efficicnt than the fossil fucl. This resultcd ill
upgrading o f small to medium sizcd hydro electric
generating stations distributed whcrever there was an
adequate suppIy of moving water and a need for clectricily.
As electricity deinand soarcd i n the middle years o f this
century, and the cfficiency of coal and oil fueled powcr
plants increased, sniall hydro plants fell out o f favour. Most
new hydro electric development was focuscd on huge
" mega-projects" .
The majority of these power plants involved largc
dams which flooded big areas of land to provide watcr
storage and therefore a constant supply o f electricity as
shown in Fig. 1. In recent years, the environmental impacls
of such large hydro projects are being identified as a cause
for concern. It is becoming increasingly difficult for
developers to build new darns because of opposition from
environmentalists and people living on the land to be
flooded [I].
 E. Plarit Factor

Fig. I . Damp and Penstock = energy used / energy available

TABLE I
CLASSIFICATION OF HYDRO PLANTS [2,3]
Assumed PusDd
= 30 kW ;
iI
- i
1 Large 1 All installations with an installed capacity of more than
1
~

iI 1000 k W
i t= 12 hours
r-----I
1 Small I A l l installations in the range between 500 to 1000 kW.
i
! I ! Therefore,
I Mini
r Capacity between I00 to 500
i kW I
I ! i PF = (30 kW x 12 hrs) / (50 kW x 24 hrs)
I

1
I
I Micro Hydro power installations with a power output less ! = 0.3
I than IOOkW I
i
PF full = (50 kW x 12 hrs) / (50 kW x 24 hrs)
11. METHODOLOGY
= 0.5
To deveiop a micro hydropower plant, there are a lot of
considerarions to be taken which are [4]: Primary Load PF
I ) Hydroiogy and site survey =( 8 hrs x 25 kW milline f ( 6 hrs x 50 kW liphrine )
2 ) . Measurement of head 50 kW x 24 hrs
3) Measurement of flow
4) Civil Work Components
= 500 / I200
a) weir and intake
b ) Channels
= 0.42
c) Settling Basin
d) Spillways
Assumed storage cooking + battery charging = 6.15 kW;
e ) Forebay tank
f ) Penstock Wet season = 9 mths
5 ) Selection of Turbines
a) Impulse turbines
b) Reaction rurbines Secondary Load; PF
6 ) Drive Systems
= 0.42 f 6.25kW x 9 mths
7 ) Electrical Power 50 kW x 12 mths
= 0.42 + 0.094
HI. CALCULATIONS = 0.514

.d. Power From Water

Assumed only 1 month for operation and maintenance (0 T
P =e xP x Qxgxh (1)
M ) down time,
Where, p = 1000
PF = 0.5 14 x ( I 1 1 12 )
P n , , = 0 . 5 x 1 . 0 ~1 0 0 0 ~ 9 . 810~
= 0.47
= 49kW
 222
IV. RESULTS TABLE Vlll
ESTIMATION COST OF A MICRO H Y D R O POWER PLANT

Components Cost (RM)

Gross head 10 m
Civil Works
Overall efficiency 0.5 Weir and intake 100,000.00
Net Power 50 kW Spil I way 125,000.00
Silt basin I50,OOO.OO
TABLE 111 Channel 300,000.00
PLANT FACTOR Forebay tank 175.000.00
Penstock 150,000.00
Power house
Used Power Turbine 325.000.00
Insballed Power Generator 325,000.00
Time Estimation 12 hours Electrical System I50,OOO.OO
Plant Factor for 30 kW Transformers I5.000.00
Piam Factor for 50 kW Power House Crane 100.000.00
Primarv Loads Plant Factor ' 0.42
0.5 I4
Plant Factor 0.47
Total cost 1,915,000.00
. TABLEIV '

' LOAD FACTOR

V . DISCUSSIONS

Energy used in I2 hours 60 Kw

In this paper, the design process basically involves
Energy supplied 120kw ,

Load Factor 05 overall estimation of a micro hydro power plant. To build a

real one, it begin with making a survey on the sitc and
TABLE V collect all the information of all aspect of hydrology at the
UNIT ENERGY COST site for at least 20 years back. From there, [lie dcsign o f an
intake, weir, penstock, channel, spillways, the power house,
kWh consumed 1 21900 kWh/year the electrical parts and many more can be done.
Unil Energy Cost ] %0.053/Kwh A software is developed using Matlab to calculate the basic
needs of micro hydro power such as the power. hcad, flow
TABLE VI and type of turbines can be used.
HYDROLOGY AND SITE SURVEY The problems faced during the implcincntation of this
project:
Annual Average Daily Flow (ADF) I .o "/s Difficulty obtaining reference - reference material
especially books on micro hydro powcr design is
Volume now per year 3 I.536 * IO* "/!car
difficult to get. The books avaiiable are niore on hydro
Rainfall 1880mdyear~ .
power plant. Due to this, the design is not a perrcct onc
Runoff I .63 &year which have all the criteria to develop a micro hydro
Catchment Area 19.35 IOb m' power plant. Basically the design is more on basic
Pressure 0.1 bar ($1.45 psi parts of a micro hydro power.
Difficulty to get data - lot ofdatas have to be assumed
TABLE VI1 because o f there is no real site to survey, lo niakc the
GENERATOR calculations on site and to collect all the data needed
and many more. The data on, the turbincs, generator,
Type Induction generator transformer, type of transmission lines are also
Output power 50 Kw difficult to get, and substituted it by making a logic
Efficiency 0.8
assumption on all the datas.
1 Power factor
Synchronous speed (Ns)
r 0.81500 rpm Difficulty on software - Matlab software can be used
to calculate the basic thing of a niicro hydro power
Rotor speed (N) I 1560rpm
I560 rpm plant such as the power, head and flow but the difficult
Slip - 4 %b part is to develop a programming that can decide what
type of turbines can be used based on the parameters
given. The datas on each turbine always overlap on
each other, then the best turbine can be used must be
decide manually. From the programming, the results
always give more than one turbine, then it is up to
choose the best and suitable turbine bascd on the
informations collected.

VI. COXCLUSIONS
This paper deals the potentials o f micro hydro power in
Malaysia. The design of 50 kW micro hydro power and a
simple programming using hlatlab software to calculate the
basic components of a hydro power like its head, power
produced, t'row of the river and type of the turbines.also had
been given. A simple hardware of a basic hydro power plant
also had been developed.
The main objective of this paper is to focus on the
potenrial of micro hydro power development and to understand
rhe designing procedure o f a micro hydro with a simple
calculations and programming using Matlab software.
223
VII. REFERENCES
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[?I littn:l/nww.micohvdropo\vcr.nrl
[3] Adam Harvey. Andy Brown. Priyantha Hemsfachi and Allcn lniwsiii.
"Micro Hydro Design Manual" /nlrrnrrdiutr T~clrrroiug~.
Puhiicuiions. United Kingdon!. 1993.
[4] Peter Fraenkel. Oliver Paish, Adam Harvey. Andrew Bmyn. Rod
Edwards and Vans. Bokalders, '' Micro Hydro Power" /Mcmiidiute
T e c h n o l u ~Pi(bliruriom u i ~ d Sioukkoim E I I L ~ ~ ~ O I I/m?ztulc.
IIIL.,~~
Uiirced Kingdom 1993.
[SI Allen R. Invenin. "Micro Hydropower Sourcebook" n'REC.4
lrrlernafioi~ulForoidaiioir. Uiiiied Siaier. 1986.
[ti] Prof, Or. -In&. Joachim Raabe, "Hydro Power" Kl/-l'er/ug~
GirlbH.Gerriinny, 1985.
[7] Blom F Dahlen. "Hydro Power in Malaysia" Ttr.rtugu~VusionalBc.rhad.
b/daysia. 1993.
[SI hrtn://www.ereeninstitute.org
[9] htto:ilwww.sn3rc.iieI.a~s
[ I O ] hrro:/lwww.ascanenerqv.orS
[ I I] htrD:/l\~ivw.eeve.eii~r~veov
I .