Hydro Kinetic Potential Assessment

There are mainly two approaches to harness energy from water, namely, hydrostatic and hydrokinetic. Hydrostatic approach is the conventional way of producing electricity by storing water in reservoirs to create a pressure head and extracting the potential energy of water. In hydrokinetic approach, the kinetic energy in the flowing water is directly converted into electricity by relatively small scale turbines without impoundment and with almost no head. In hydrokinetic energy conversion system, the power is directly proportional to the cubic power of flow velocity. Therefore, it is very important to determine the location of higher velocity. Higher the velocity, higher power will be produced. Velocity measurement and bathymetry study are the two basic requirements for site assessment which can be achieved through various velocity measuring instruments. More than one hydrokinetic turbine can be deployed in an array by considering the wake modeling effect to the nearby turbine, effect of cost of total energy and effect on power generation. In this study, a systematic approach for potential assessment of hydro kinetic energy has been presented. It has been found that hydrokinetic energy can be used in remotely located areas especially in non-grid stations.