Hydropower Engineering II

Chapter Two
Power plant station

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 2. Power Plant Station
• Components of Hydropower projects
• Generally three basic elements are necessary in order to
generate power from water: a means of creating head, a
conduit to convey water, and a power plant.
• To provide these functions, the following components are
used:

✓Dam or reservoir,
✓intake conduit or penstock,
✓surge tank
✓ power house and draft tube and tail race. 12/24/2017 2
Components of a hydropower project

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 What is Power House?
It is a building for the protection and housing of
hydraulic, electrical and other necessary equipment of
the power plant.
The power house shelters the:
• Draft tube
• Turbines
• Generating units
• control and auxiliary equipments, and
• sometimes erection and service areas 12/24/2017 5
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Power House Layout

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…

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 Location of PH
➢The power house location and size is
determined by site conditions and project
layout.
➢The power house would be located to
economically maximize available head
while observing site physical and
environmental constraints.
➢It could be located within the dam
structure, adjacent to it or some distance
away from the dam.
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 Power house types
• According to the main generating unit are
housed there are four types of power house.
❖Indoor: encloses all of the power house
components under one roof.
❖Semi-out door:
✓ Fully enclosed generator room.
✓ The main hoisting and transfer equipment is
located on the roof of the plant and equipment is
handled through hatches located in the roof.
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❖Outdoor:
✓A generator room is not provided
✓Generators are enclosed in a weather proof
individual cubicles or enclosures and are recessed
in to the floor.
❖Underground:
✓Often used in mountainous areas where there is
limited space available to locate a power plant.
✓Used to minimize penstock length in these areas
since the penstock can be located directly below
the reservoir.
✓ Pumped storage powerhouses are often located
underground in order to shorten the penstock
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➢The selection of powerhouse configuration
and structure should be based upon both
Fixed Operation and Maintenance (O&M)
costs.
➢The lower capital cost associated with out
door and semi-out door power plants is often
offset by increased equipment and Operation
and Maintenance costs.
➢The final selection of powerhouse for any
given site would be made after a detailed cost
study, usually performed in the feasibility
design stage.
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 Power house types….
➢The basic requirement of a power house
is the functional utility and the aesthetic
requirements.
➢A power house of a hydropower may be
I. Surface PH:
usually located at the dam toe, where
water is conveyed through the dam by
means of penstocks 12/24/2017 13
II. Underground PH:
➢This type of powerhouse is often used in
mountainous areas where there is limited
space available to locate a power plant.
➢It is also used to minimize penstock
length in these areas since the penstock
can be located directly below the
reservoir.( provides short &direct route to
intake)
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Fig. Surface Power House

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 Fig. Surface Power House
The Dam structure and the hydropower plant
may be integrated

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 Simple Comparison
❖ A surface power house has no space limitation where as
an underground power house has space limitation.
❖ The surface power houses need an architectural
planning so that it fit with the general landscape.
❖ If a particular area is affected by landslides and if the
underlying geology is suitable, an underground
powerhouse is the obvious choice.
❖ Underground – Safe from any manmade attack.
❖ For low head power plant and small scale
developments surface power house is the economical
choice .
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 Power house planning
• The basic requirement of a power house are the
functional utility and the aesthetic requirements.
1

• The size of the building is governed by the

requirements to accommodate
✓ The generator
✓ The spiral casing
✓The draft tube and
✓ Erection bay
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➢In addition the following equipment are
considered for planning and dimensioning of
the power house:
A. Hydraulic equipment:
✓ Turbines
✓ Gate and gate valves
✓ Relief valves of penstocks
✓ Governors
✓ Flow measuring equipment
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B. Electrical equipment:
• Generator, Exciters, Transformers, Pumps,
cooling systems, connections, funs , plate
forms, different Switching equipment etc.
C. Miscellaneous equipment:
i. Crane
ii. Work shops
iii. Office rooms
iv. Other facilities,( clinic, Store etc.)
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Fig. Power house system layout 12/24/2017 21
 Machine arrangement
• The machine in the power house can be either
I. Vertical mounting
II. Horizontal mounting.
I. A horizontal mounting : machine requires more
floor space but less height.
II. A vertical mounting : machine requires less floor
space but more height.
✓ For larger capacity installations, it is ideal choice
to have vertical mounting.
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 Components of a power house
➢ It consists three main components
in general:
I. Sub- Structure
II. Intermediate structure and
III. Super structure
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 I. Sub- Structure
The substructure of a power house is the portion
below the turbine level.
➢ It is the foundation of the power house
✓ Which consists of steel and concrete structures
necessary to form the draft tube, support the
turbine stay ring and generator
✓ It also gives accommodation for drainage
facilities, tail water and access galleries to the
substructure.
✓ It transmit the load to the foundation.
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 II. Intermediate structure
• Extends from the top of sub-structure to the top of
generator foundation in vertical layout.
• It accommodates the end pieces of the penstock,
valves, scroll case and runner in reaction turbines and
the distributors nozzles, and runner in Pelton turbines.

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 III. Super-Structure
• Accommodates the generator in vertical and
horizontal shaft layout, oil pressure governing
system, control cubical, and the over head erection
cranes.
• In the horizontal layout, it accommodates the turbine
also.

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Fig. vertical setting out of turbine

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Fig. Components Power House

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Fig. horizontal setting turbine

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 General arrangement of Powerhouse
➢In general, a powerhouse in hydropower
plant may be divided into three areas:
1. The main powerhouse structure
2. Erection bay and
3. Service areas.

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 1. Main powerhouse structure
❖The generator room is the main feature of
the powerhouse about which other areas are
grouped.
❖It is divided into bays or blocks with one
generating unit normally located in each
block.
❖All clearances should be adequate to provide convenient
working space but should not be excessive.

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➢The height of the generator room is
governed by the maximum clearance height
required for dismantling and/or moving
major items of equipment, such as parts of
generators and turbines; location of the crane
rails due to erection bay requirements; the crane
clearance requirements; and the type of roof
framing.

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 2. Erection bay
❖In general, the erection bay should be
located at the end of the generator room,
preferably at the same floor elevation and with
a length equal to at least one generator bay.

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 3. Service area
❖Service areas include: offices, control and
testing rooms, storage rooms, maintenance
shop, auxiliary equipment rooms, and other
rooms for special uses.

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Control room

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 Powerhouse dimensions
• The overall dimensions of power house mainly
depend upon :
a) Overall dimensions of the turbine, draft tube
and scroll-case;
b) Overall dimensions of the generator;
c) Number of units in the power house;
d) Size of the erection bay.

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 Length of Power House
• It depends upon the unit spacing, length of
erection bay and the length required for the
E.O.T. crane to handle the last unit.
Unit Spacing
• For determining the distance between the center
lines of the successive units. a plan showing the
overall dimensions of the spiral casing, the draft-
tube and the hydro-generator should be drawn
with respect to the vertical axis of the machine.

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• For determining the outer dimensions of the
generator barrel,- the inner diameter of the
generator barrel may be increased by 0.5 to 15
m depending upon the size of the machine.
• A clearance of l-5 to 2.0 m should be added on
either side of the extremities of the above drawn
figures to determine the unit spacing.
• These clearances should be such that a concrete
thickness on either side of scroll case should be
at least 2.0 to 2.5 m in case of concrete scroll
cases and 1.0 to I.5 m in case of fully-embedded
steel scroll cases. 12/24/2017 43
• The length of erection bay may be taken as 1.0
to 1.5 times the unit bay size as per erection
requirements.
• The total length L of the power houses can
then be determined as follows:

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 Width of Power House Super structure
• For determining the width of the power house
superstructure, the overall dimensions of the
spiral casing and the hydro generator may be
drawn with respect to the vertical axis of the
machine. Superstructure columns should be clear
of the downstream extremities of the above
drawn figure by about 2.0 to 2.5 meters.

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• On the upstream side provision should be made for the
following:
a. A clearance of about I.5 to 2-O m for concrete the upstream
of scroll case;
b. A gallery of 1.5 to 2~0 m width for approaching the draft
tube manhole;
c. In case the main inlet valve is also accommodated in the power
house, a valve pit of appropriate size should have to be
provided as per IS 7326 ( Part 1 ) : 1992 and IS 7332 ( Part 1
) : 1991;
d. A clearance of about l-5 to 2.0 m for pressure relief valve in
the scroll case, if required;
e. The spaces as indicated against item (a) to (d) are supposed to
be sufficient for accommodating the auxiliary equipment also but
may have to be reviewed considering the layout12/24/2017
of essential
46

equipment and operational requirements.

• The inlet valve gallery, if provided, can be utilized
for approaching the draft-tube man-hole also and
hence no separate gallery is needed for this
purpose.
• The criteria laid down in Width of power house
determination gives the internal width of the
Power House (excluding column width ).

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 Height of Power House
• The height of power house from the bottom of the
draft-tube to the centre line of the spiral casing H1, (
see Fig. 20 ), can be determined in accordance with IS
5496 : 1969.
• The thickness of the concrete below the lowest point of
draft-tube may be taken from 1.0 to 2.0 m depending
upon the type of foundation strata, backfill conditions
and size of the power house.

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• The height of power house from the centre line
of the spiral-casing up to the top of the
generator H2 ( see Fig. 20 ) can be determined,
as follows:
H, = Lt + hj + K
Lt and hj have been defined in 5.6 and 5.7.1
respectively. The value of K may be taken as
5.5 to 7.0 depending upon the size of the
machine.

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• The height of the machine hall above the
top bracket of the generator depends
upon the E.O.T. crane hook level and the
corresponding E.O.T. crane rail level, and
the clearance required between the ceiling
and the top of the crane.
• Further the height should depend upon
the height of the service bay floor from
where the equipment is to be handled.
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• The E.O.T. crane hook level and the corresponding crane
rail level are determined by providing adequate clearance
for the following cases:
a) Hauling moving major items of equipment viz. turbine
runners assembly, rotor assembly and even entire generator
stator.
b) Hauling the main transformer with bushing into the
erection bay under E.O.T. crane girder.
c) Clearance required for untaking transformers.
d) Unloading of largest package from trailers. A height of 7
to 8.5m between the top erection bay floor and highest
hook level may be sufficient.
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• The height of the power house ceiling above the highest
level of the E.O.T. crane hook may generally vary from
4 to 6.5 m depending upon the width of the power
house super- structure and capacity of E.O.T. crane.
Keeping a clearance of O-3 metre between the highest
part of the gantry crane and the ceiling of the power
house. A typical example for calculating the overall
dimensions of the power house is given in Annex A.

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Thank you!

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