Simulations and experimental validation of Pico conduit pressure hydropower systems with battery storage

Abstract

An increase in the world's population has led to an increased energy demand. Sustainable renewable energy sources must be broadly executed to fulfil the continuous need for energy. Amongst different renewable energy technologies, hydropower generation proved to be the most feasible solution. A portion of small hydropower can be acquired by recovering the energy inside water supply networks. This may lead to a sustainable electrification solution and reduced electricity bills for the water utility companies. Hence, the procedure of energy recovery using conduit hydro technology must be a part of the water cycle. Numerous nations have started with the improvement of this innovative conduit hydro technology. However, very little has been exploited. Hence, this study focuses on developing a simulation tool that can be used to analyse conduit hydropower generation system with a battery storage. Subsequently, this paper exhibits the modelling and performance analysis of a small conduit hydropower system in MATLAB/Simulink software. This will assist the conduit hydropower developers to quantify the available energy and evaluate the viability of the conduit hydropower projects. Furthermore, the performance of the modelled conduit hydropower system is compared to the performance of a prototype setup in a laboratory environment. Inlet water pressure was assessed to observe how the system reacts to the variation of the water pressure. This data was used to simulate the performance of the model in MATLAB/Simulink in comparison with the laboratory prototype. The results revealed that the developed model reacted viably under variable pressure. The conduit hydropower was just dynamic when the excess pressure was accessible, this is because of the pressure distinction between Pressure Reducing Valve (PRV) pre-set pressure and the system pressure. Hence, the excess pressure is used to drive the generator and the generated energy is then stored in the battery.