Sustainable Energy
ISSN (Print): 2372-2134 ISSN (Online): 2372-2142 Website: http://www.sciepub.com/journal/rse Editor-in-chief: Apply for this position
Open Access
Journal Browser
Go
Sustainable Energy. 2014, 2(2), 63-80
DOI: 10.12691/rse-2-2-5
Open AccessArticle

Development of a Computational Interface for Hydropower Plants

Ajao K.R1, , Olabode O.F.1 and Sule O.1

1Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria

Pub. Date: March 27, 2014

Cite this paper:
Ajao K.R, Olabode O.F. and Sule O.. Development of a Computational Interface for Hydropower Plants. Sustainable Energy. 2014; 2(2):63-80. doi: 10.12691/rse-2-2-5

Abstract

The computational interface for hydropower plants was developed with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and tested using some available data from Jebba hydropower station to validate its functionality due to non availability of data for small hydropower plants which the interface is designed for. Hitherto several other methods have been used in hydropower computation, these methods range from manual computation with the use of pen and paper to the use of Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, some others utilize Visual Basic to commercial software. This interface was designed to compute flow duration values, plant capacity, power duration and the available energy. The program also have the project report feature, where user can view a concise report of the computation, save and print report sheets.

Keywords:
computational interface manual computation flow duration values plant capacity report sheets

Creative CommonsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References:

[1]  Castaldi, D.,Chastain, E., Windram, M., Ziatyk, L. ,(2003). A Study of Hydroelectric Power : From a Global Perspective to a Local Application .Accessed on 10/04/2012,available online at http://www.ems.psu.edu/vikingpaper pdf , pp 4-5.
 
[2]  Bennett, K., (1990), Clean Energy Project Analysis. Canada: Ret Screen
 
[3]  Wang Z., Hongliang H. (2012), Hydropower Computation Using Visual Basic for Application Programming. China: ICAPIE. Accessed on 12/04/2012, available online at http://www.sciencedirect.com.
 
[4]  Goran S. (2009), A Practical Guide to Assessment and Implementation of Small Hydropower.Australia: Tasmania. Accessed on 5/05/2012, available online at http://www.docstoc.com/docs/19906479/a-practical-guide-to-assesment-and-implementation-of-small , pp 1-5.
 
[5]  The Visual Studio Combined help collection, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Documentation, (2007), Microsoft Corporation
 
[6]  A visual representation of how bubble sort works. Accessed on 20/12/2011, available online at http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/bubble_sort.
 
[7]  Analysis Techniques: Flow Duration Analysis Tutorial (2002), Oregon State University. Accessed on 08/12/2011, available online at http://water.oregonstate.edu/streamflow/.
 
[8]  RETScreen® International Clean Energy Decision Support Centre (1997), RETScreen® Software Online User Manuals. Canada: Ret Screen.
 
[9]  Olukanni, D. O. & Salami, A. W. (2008). Fitting probability distribution functions to reservoir inflow at hydropower dams in Nigeria. Journal of Environmental Hydrology, USA, Vol. 16 Paper 35, pp. 1-7.
 
[10]  Jebba Hydro Power Plant Brief History. Accessed on 12/11/2011, available online at http://jebbahydroelectricplc.org.
 
[11]  Ajao K.R. & Sule B.F. (2011). Reduction of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in the Atmosphere, Hydropower as a Viable Renewable Energy Resource. Journal of Basic and Applied Scientific Research, TextRoad Publication, pp. 2127-2128.
 
[12]  Jebba Hydroelectric power plant Nigeria-Geo. Accessed on 12/03/2012, available online at http://globalenergyobservatory.org/geoid/42544.