Structuring a Hydroturbine Testing Program to Measure and Maximize Its Benefits

This paper presents a methodology for computing analyses and indicators to track and maximize the benefits of a hydroturbine testing program and describes techniques for unit testing to minimize testing costs. On-line measurements of unit power, headwater, and tailwater can be used in conjunction with unit characteristics to quantify the energy and revenue losses associated with non-optimized plant dispatch. With the addition of an on-line flow measurement, differences between the expected and measured unit characteristics can be computed, thereby providing an overview of the accuracy of the unit characteristics. Representative examples are presented for several plants. A similar approach can be used to structure a comprehensive test program for a hydro utility or agency. Background The following discussion presents the components for structuring and tracking a hydroturbine testing program. The initial assessment of a hydro system requires archival data containing individual unit power data, headwater, tailwater, and the unit characteristics that are being used to determine the unit dispatch. With these data, multiple analyses can be performed, including: (1) operation efficiency analyses; (2) sensitivity analyses to evaluate the energy and revenue losses that errors in the unit characteristics would produce; (3) scheduling efficiency analyses; and, with the addition of a real-time flow measurement for each unit, (4) correlation efficiency analyses.