Peter Serebrenik

The Frances turbines have been in the water since 1921 in this existing hydro-electric power plant and dam. The turbines were mismatched to the generators therefore the plant never operated properly. We are exploring re-building or modifying the existing equipment to generate power.

The perpetual machine you describe is interesting and may warrant a closer look in the future. Right now, we are concentrating on the assets we have on hand. We understand the limitation of a low head and the compromised turbine. However, technologies are available today to generate some power with what we have. My post seeks options for our equipment and we appreciate any input from this forum..

I do not quite understand - the head is marginal at best. What we do have is power generating equipment, a dam and power plant. It seems to me a starting point is to determine what can be generated here and at what cost. If the kinetic potential is 250 kWh, how much of that can be actualized by modifying the existing turbine and generator. And what would that modification cost. As an example, could we generate 200 kWh by rewind/degrade the generator and overhaul the turbine to generate dc power to avoid speed control/synchronization and then invert to functional ac power? If this could be achieved for $500,000, we would have a strategy to fall back on.

Also, I am not familiar with a CO turbine or system. Could you elaborate ?

Peter, thank you for your reply. The turbines and generators were mismatched, wen the turbines were undersized. The head of our dam is also low - 2 meters. Although long term water flow is over 600 cfs, it has been reduced to around 200 cfs by drought conditions.

How can we increase the effective head and what is the associated loss in power or efficiency ?

We acquired a non-functioning hydro-electric plant a few years ago. It was built in the early 1920's. The dam is a low 2 meters and long term river flow averaged over 500 cfs. Recently droughts have reduced river flow to 200 cfs. The Francis turbines were undersized, for unknown reasons. The two Westinghouse generators are rated 300 kWh at 150 rpm, but the two Leffel 36 Z type turbines (undersized during construction) could not bring them up to that speed. Power generation was abandoned long ago. All of this is the bad news. The good part is we have a power plant, dam, some old equipment with little wear and an interest to determine if and how power may be created here.

One strategy is to abandon one turbine/generator unit and degrade/rewind the operating generator so it can be driven by the 36 inch turbine to produce d/c power at variable stream flows. And then invert the generated d/c power to a/c. Does this seem optimal to the experts on this forum ? What could this cost and how much power can we create at 400 cfs?

The river is fairly wide and slow flowing - perhaps 1.5 to 2 fps. Is it possible to install a large diameter water wheel to provide torque to a wind generator mounted above the river ?

Thank you for any advice you can share,

Peter