Technical Report No.1226

No. 1226

Investigation report on trend of new technology for Medium-Small sized hydro power plant

Investigation R&D committee on trend of new technology for Medium -Small sized hydro power plant

Keyword :

Hydraulic Turbine, Generator, Control system, Civil structure

For new technologies applied to medium-small size hydro power plants (hereinafter MS HPP), an investigation was conducted nearly 15 years ago by The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan (hereinafter IEEJ) under "Investigation R&D committee on application of new technology to MS HPP", and the result of investigation was reported in Technical Report, vol. No. 605 (September 1996 issue) published by IEEJ. The Report summarizes the trend of new technologies applied to MS HPP during the period of about 10 years prior to the time of investigation, based on replies to the questionnaires collected from electric power companies and public electricity companies. The report this time compiles the latest technical trend i.e. application condition to date of technologies reported in Technical Report, vol. No. 605 and new technologies developed and applied since then investigated through questionnaires, same as the previous investigation.
The situation in Japan concerning HPP and electric power has changed greatly during the last 15 years. In particular, the realization of low-Carbon environment has become one of fast-moving activities in response to an increasing global interest in environmental issues. Due to the change in social needs such as those mentioned, the importance of MS HPP is now regarded highly as ever and the construction plan for new plants is on the increase as well. Under these circumstances various new technologies are being developed and applied, such as technologies with the aim of improving power generating efficiencies of MS HPP, development of environment-friendly technologies, technologies aiming at the reduction of construction cost and operation/maintenance cost among other things, and at the same time an effort to expand the application range of existing technologies is also becoming active. In this report, the latest trend in technical development and activities described is highlighted.