Development of a small hydropower resource assessment and design tool

Abstract

Hydropower energy is the generation of power by harnessing energy from moving water. Due to the rich water resource, its affordability and the growing global emphasis on renewable energy among others. Hydropower is the most commonly utilized electricity source in Uganda. Uganda does not have a well penetrated electricity distribution especially in rural areas though most of the population resides in these areas. The access to electricity in Uganda is very poor which limits the country’s economic productivity and basic achievements in education, health, women empowerment among others. The project is aimed at simplifying the exploration of potential small hydropower schemes so as to determine their technical and economic viability. Using Microsoft excel a tool was designed that is capable of taking flow data and predetermined head and use them to compute the annual energy, financial analysis and characterize the structures of a small hydropower plant. Flow data for River Simu is used in the analysis and the results showed penstock thickness of 3.64mm, turbine power of 1405796.075W and specific speed of 118.87