No abstract

The electricity price escalation  in Pakistan is increasing with an exponential rate because of the dominance of the foreign imported conventional source of energy. The consumer must pay an extra tax as the fuel adjustment in every month's electricity bill. Being the renewable energy source abundant country, Pakistan needs to exploit these energy sources for electricity production. This paper presents a micro-hydro energy system at the Jalala Disty canal in KPK Pakistan. A cite specific scheming of the planned microhydro project is introduced. RETScreen based modeling and optimization of the project are discussed. Net Present Value (NPV) and the Cost of Energy (COE) of the intended microhydro system is calculated. RETScreen optimization assessment confirmed the viability of the planned micro-hydro energy system built on the COE and the NPV. The arrangement is anticipated to retrieve all the expenses incurred in the 4th year of the total period of the planned project. Comparing with the baseline energy mix of the country, the proposed energy project is 100 % greenhouse gases (GHG) emission free project.

Small micro-hydro has a variable output in terms of frequency and voltage. Formerly Electronic Load Controller has been used to stabilize the output frequency of micro-hydro in which these ELCs wasted extra generated energy as heat. In this paper, a novel approach to handle these frequency variations by designing a Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) is proposed. Besides, the electronic governor of micro-hydro turbine generator is designed by incorporating a variable speed induction motor. Thus, the spinning reserve of the motor could be used for irrigation or water storage purposes by consuming extra generated power. Further, the DC bus of VFD enables the system to integrate with other Distributed Energy Sources (DES), which will be helpful in the future extension of the microgrid.