Laboratory Model of a Small Hydropower Plant

Small hydropower plants are currently an interesting area of renewable energy sources. For the further use of renewable resources, it is necessary to look for methods for the use of watercourse resources that were unproductive by means of standard concepts. From this perspective, small hydropower plants, which are plants with an installed capacity of up to 10 MW, appear to be promising. From a management optimization point of view, it is important to use the potential of the SHPP in the most efficient way. A key area of this issue is the management of these power plants so that the power plant is productive for the longest time. The laboratory model consists of two asynchronous motors, the first one operating in a motor mode and the other in a generator mode. Both machines are controlled by modern semiconductor converters that can monitor a variety of important variables for the whole system's analysis of this model. At the same time, this SHPP model is equipped with an electronic flowmeter and several pressure gauges for sensing non-electric quantities. It is important to know the connection between the hydrodynamic, mechanical and electrical quantities for the management of the SHPP. The characteristics of the operating modes are listed here based on measurements and allow for basic conceptions of the behaviour of these SHPPs.