Investigation of Hydropower Generation From Irrigation Dams

Abstract

Since geodetic and fossil energy that Turkey owns is insufficient and do not meet the demand, evaluation of renewable energy resource is very important for Turkey. For this reason, tending towards hydro-electric power is an applicable option and hydroelectric power is one of the most important energy resource for the country. From the point of view of water resources, evaluation of water potential of large and small streams for the purpose of energy production is vital for the country. Thereby, the existing deficit gap relevant to the energy, is reduceable. Within this paper, Seydisuyu basin has been selected as the research area. Precipitation in the watershed is drained by Seydisuyu stream. Only two dams named as Kunduzlar and Çatören, were constructed and are currently in operation in the study area. These dams were built for the purposes of only irrigation and flood control, in the watershed. Water potential of the basin is very small, due to the slight amount of precipitation within that area. Accordingly, planning of only small-scale hydro-electric energy potential is considerable over these dams, for region/national economic advantage of the country. In this study, the hydro-electric power potential of these two existing dams, were investigated. For this purpose, using 19 years of monthly data obtained from six existing flow gauging stations in the basin, the amount of hydroelectric energy generation of these dams was analyzed individually. As the result of these analysis, the calculation of the annual energy production capacity, the installed power production, and the annual economic contribution for both Çatören and Kunduzlar dams were estimated as 4.14 GWh (2.15 GWh (Çatören) + 1.99 GWh (Kunduzlar)), 0.843 MW (0.273 MW (Çatören) + 0.57 MW (Kunduzlar)), and 495000 USD (257000 USD (Çatören) + 238000 USD (Kunduzlar)), respectively.