Hydro Electric Power Plants

Governor and Speed Regulation

• The function of the governor is to keep the speed constant
when the load on the turbine increases or decreases.
• To maintain the frequency of electric supply constant, the
speed of alternator, driven by the hydraulic turbine, must
remain constant.
• As the load changes, the governor changes the rate of flow of
water to bring the speed back to normal speed and maintains
a balance between the power output and input.
• A good speed regulating governor should be quite sensitive to
the changes in shaft speed and should be rapid in action.
• The governor should not close the pipe so quickly as to cause
water hammer in the penstock.
• The governor systems for modern hydraulic turbines have a
regulating time of 3 – 5 seconds.
• The principal elements of a speed regulating system for
hydraulic turbines are:
1. Speed responsive element – generally flyball mechanism.
2. Relay valve to supply oil pressure to either side of servo-
motor piston.
3. Servo-motor along with oil pressure operated piston to move
turbine control mechanism.
4. Restoring mechanism to hold servo-motor in fixed position
when input and output are equalised
5. Oil pressure supply required for the action of servo-motor.
Speed Regulation of Pelton turbines
• The speed regulation of a pelton turbine is obtained by to and
fro motion of a spear inside the nozzle.
• The to and fro motion changes the cross-section area, thus
regulating the flow of water according to the load.
• To avoid water hammer, a double speed regulating system
using a spear and deflector is mostly used.
• When the load on the turbine decreases, the speed increased
and the balls fly outward, thus moving the ball crank level
towards bottom.
• This motion of lever brings the deflector in front of nozzle and
thus a part or whole of water jet is directed to the tail race.
• The outward motion of balls also raises the piston in the relay
valve, thus allowing oil to flow to the left of the piston in the
servo-motor.
• The servo-motor piston moves to the right and the spear
moves forward to reduce the nozzle outlet, thus reducing the
rate of flow of water.
• With the motion of piston, the cam also moves towards right
and causes the deflector to go back to original position.
• When the load increases, the turbine speed decreases and
the balls fly inward.
• This lowers the piston in the relay valve, thus allowing oil to
flow to the right of the piston in the servo-motor.
• The servo-motor piston moves to the left and the spear
withdraws to increase the nozzle outlet, thus increasing the
rate of flow of water.
Speed Regulation of Reaction turbines
• The governor, relay valve, servo-motor and their action for
control of a reaction turbine is exactly similar as in the case of
pelton wheel.

• The double regulating system is also used here.

• The guide vanes of reaction turbines are capable of rotation

about a hinge at the centre.

• The to and fro motion of the servo-motor piston closes or

opens the passage between the adjacent vanes thus
regulating the flow of water according to the load.
• In Francis turbine, a relief valve, known as pressure regulator,
is provided in the penstock.

• When load decreases, the relief valve opens, diverting the

water directly to the tailrace and thus avoiding water hammer
in the penstock.

• The function of relief valve in a Francis turbine is similar to

that of deflector in Pelton turbine.
• In a Kaplan turbine, the double regulation consists of motion
of guide vanes and runner blade adjustment.

• The motion of guide vanes controls the flow of water.

• An independent servo-motor adjusts the runner blade angle

to achieve high efficiency operation even when the machine is
operating at part load.
 Hydro Power Plant Auxiliaries
• Governor oil system
• Lubricating oil pumps
• Coolant pumps
• Drainage pumps
• Fans
• Cooling oil pumps
• Air compressors
• Head gate drain valve and piping
• Cranes
• Batteries
• Battery charging unit
• Vacuum and pressure gauges
• Relay and associative protective equipment
• Exciter
• Synchronising equipment, etc.

• Every hydro system is connected to high voltage transmission

through a step up sub-station which contains the usual
equipment like:
 Transformers
 Circuit breakers
 Lightning Arresters
 Isolators
 Relays
 Current transformers
 Potential transformers etc.
• All auxiliaries of hydro electric power plants are electrically
driven.
• The auxiliary power supply may be obtained from
neighbouring sub-station or from a separate generator driven
by a turbine.
• The later system involves extra response but is more reliable.
 Automatic and Remote Control of
Hydro plants
• Every hydro plant needs a speed governing system for load
frequency control and voltage regulator for reactive power
control.
• In addition, many protective devices like bearing temperature
relays, generator winding temperature relays, generator short
circuit protection relays, reverse power relays, negative phase
sequence relays, overload relays etc., are also needed.
• For efficient and fast operation of protective devices, t is
necessary that they operate automatically to detect the
abnormal conditions which call for their operation and shut
down the unit as and when necessary.
• It is always preferable to control the different units in a power
plant from a centrally situated control room rather than from
different floors where the equipment are installed.

• All the operations including starting, synchronising, loading

and shut down of units are performed from the control room.

• Modern hydro plants are always run as a part of an integrated

power system consisting of many power plants,
interconnected through high voltage transmission network.

• The control engineer or an online computer determines the

generation requirements for different plants and transmits
the information to the plants for taking corrective action.
• The communication between the control centre and power
plants is generally through carrier current signals.
Pumped Storage Plants
• A pumped storage plant is a special type of plant meant to
supply peak loads.
• During peak period, water is drawn from the head water pond
through the penstock and generates power for supplying the
peak load.
• During the off-peak period, the same water is pumped back
from the tail water pond to the head water pond so that this
water ay be used to generate energy during the next peak
load period.
• Thus, the same water is used again and again and extra water
is needed only to take care of evaporation and seepage.
• Generally pumping of water from the tail water pond to the
head water pond is done at night when loads are low.
• The plant generates energy for supplying peak loads during
day time.
• The off peak pumping maintains the firm capacity of the
pumped storage plant.
• The reservoir capacity should be such that the plant can
supply peak load for 4 to 11 hours.
• The earlier pumped storage installations used a separate
pump for pumping the water back into the head water pond.
• A recent development is reversible turbine pump.
• During peak loads, the turbine drives the alternator and the
plant generates electrical energy.
• During low loads the alternator runs as a motor and drives the
turbine which now works as a pump for pumping the water
into the head water pond.
• The above arrangement reduces the capital cost of the plant.
• The power for driving the motor is taken from the system.