Fundamental characteristics of test facility for micro hydroelectric power generation system

This paper proposes a test facility for micro hydraulic generation system. Micro hydraulic generation system is very difficult to exam their characteristics including hydraulic turbine because water flow in various conditions is necessary but it is very difficult to realize in laboratory. In this paper water flow is realized using general purpose pump that can add pressure to water flow to simulate water drop. From obtained experimental results, a simulation model of hydro turbine was built in order to establish high efficiency control system.

I. Introduction

Recently global warming becomes big problem. Therefore the development of the clean energy that does not discharge CO₂ is strongly expected. Micro hydroelectric power generation is one of the attract choices ^(1)~(4). Micro hydraulic power generation is with small, simple facilities and has stable output. The authors have studied a new micro hydraulic power generation with simple mechanism and high efficiency. The proposed system was tested in a real river ⁽⁵⁾⁽⁶⁾. Micro hydraulic generation system is very difficult to exam their characteristics including hydraulic turbine because water flow in various conditions is necessary but it is very difficult to realize in laboratory. This paper proposes a new test facility for micro hydraulic generation system. In this system, a water flow is realized using general purpose pump that can add pressure to water flow to simulate water drop. Fundamental characteristics are obtained using the proposed facility toward high efficiency micro hydraulic generation system.