Micro Hydro Power for Off Grid Electrification: A Case Study of Hhaynu River - Mbulu,Tanzania

Abstract

Designing of Hydro Power Plant needs reliable water throughout the year. Determining amount of water in the stream/river is important step before implementing HEP project due to recent demand in irrigation. Two methods of determining amount of water in the river that is historical data and measured data have been used. It is found that maximum flows occurred in April with discharge of 2.3 m(3)/s and the lowest is in October with discharge of 0.6 m(3)/s. therefore, for system design 0.4 m(3)/s would be used for electricity generation while 0.2 m(3)/s would be for environmental flowing at length of penstock. Using discharge of 0.4 m(3)/s, head of 25 m the gross power generated by the hydro power plant would be 98.1 kW.