Kangaroo Valley Hydro-Electric Power Station: A Detailed Analysis

Running Head: ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
0
Electrical
Engineering
Kangaroo Valley Hydro-Electric Power
Station
(Student Details: )
9/15/2019

Electrical Engineering
1
Contents
Kangaroo Valley Hydro-Electric Power Station (KVHPS).......................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Hydro-Electric Power Station....................................................................................................3
The Power of Water...............................................................................................................3
Pumped Storage Hydro Power Plant (PSHPP)..........................................................................4
Mechanism of Electrical Machines............................................................................................5
Advantages and Disadvantages of Hydro-Electric Energy........................................................8
Advantages of Hydro-Electric Energy...................................................................................8
Disadvantages of Hydro-Electric Energy...............................................................................9
Environment Issues raised by KVHPS......................................................................................9
Future Prospects.......................................................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................12

Electrical Engineering
2
Kangaroo Valley Hydro-Electric Power Station (KVHPS)
Introduction
This report is based on electrical machines working in a hydro power plant (HPP) i.e.
pumped storage power plant. To do so, Kangaroo Valley Hydro-Electric Power Station
(KVHPS) has been selected so that detailed research on pumped storage power plant can be
done (Aussie Renewables, 2019). The concept behind a pumped storage hydro plant is to
save resources like water, energy, and power as much as possible. In general, a hydro-power
station is a way to produce electrical power from hydro power that is potential as well as
kinetic energy of water stored at significant height. This report will contain the basic
definition of the concepts like Hydro Power Station (HPS) and pumped storage HPS. In this
context, Kangaroo Valley is a river valley along the Kangaroo River in the Shoalhaven region
of New South Wales, Australia, located west of the seaside in the City of Shoalhaven. Thus,
this power station is called KVHPS because it is situated in the Kangaroo Valley (Arena,
2019). While talking about KVHPS, in this report detailed mechanism of pumped storage
hydro power plant will be discussed from the perspective of electrical machines. Apart from
this, environmental issues raised by a hydro-electric power plant as well as KVHPS will be
identified, studied in detail (Arena Wire, 2018). Post identifying and studying them this
discussion will offer possible solutions for such environmental issues in this sustainability-
focused era. At the end of this report, a summary of the detailed analysis will be provided to
offer integrated learning about HPS to the readers (Okot, 2013).
Source: (Okot, 2013)

Electrical Engineering
3
Hydro-Electric Power Station
In general, a hydro-electric generating station is a hydro power plant that produces electrical
power while using water to rotate the turbines. Such turbines effectively drive the generators
so that mechanical energy can be further converted into electrical energy or electricity. It has
been noted that hydro power stations usually generate about a quarter of all the electricity
utilised in the whole world. As per the definition, hydroelectricity is the electricity generated
from hydro-power. As per the recent data, in the year 2015, hydropower generated 16.6% of
the globe’s total electricity as well as 70% of all renewable electricity. It has been anticipated
that hydroelectricity will increase by about 3.1% each year for the upcoming 25 years (Deane
et al., 2010).
Mainly, there are two types of hydro-power generating station as follows:
1. Run-of-river power plant
2. Generating station with reservoir
The reservoir generating station is that power plant that is typically supplied by the water
accumulated in an artificial lake erected from building a dam i.e. a retaining structure. On the
other hand, run-of-river power plant is that power plant that is typically fed straight by a
natural river. It is worth knowing that this kind of power plant usually has little or no water
storage capacity. Therefore, the head of water in this HPP is not high; hence the power
generating output depends on the river-flow.
The Power of Water
As we know, Grain millers firstly harnessed the power of water thousands of years ago. In
this context, Millhouses has made along a river featured a waterwheel which was propelled
by the water’s current; in this way the wheel then rotated a millstone which actually crushed
grain for making flour to eat (Nunez, 2019).
In order to create a force able enough to propel turbines into an HPP, the flow of water must
be strong enough as well as the head of water must be high as required. Here, water flow
always must be strong enough while water head must be always high as per the power
generation requirements. Apart from this, water flow can be defined as the volume running
from a given spot for a given time period/second (Sauve et al., 2016). Technically, water
head can be defined as the exact difference amid upstream point of water and downstream
point. Similarly, water head is known as the difference between the water tailrace and intake.