Mini, Micro, and Small Hydropower Plants are Returning to the Market
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Vol. 54, No. 4, November, 2020
MINI, MICRO, AND SMALL HYDROPOWER PLANTS ARE RETURNING TO THE MARKET V. V. Markin,1 N. P. Kiselev,2 and N. I. Kmotrikov3 Translated from Gidrotekhnicheskoe Stroitel’stvo, No. 6, June 2020, pp. 9 – 15.
Data is presented on estimation calculations of the energy potential of the rivers of Russia, and the history of the development of a small hydropower in the Russian Federation is briefly explained. The current use of energy resources and the prospects for their further utilization worldwide in different countries of the world are examined. The basic difficulties of developing small hydropower in Russia are defined, and provisions for development of small hydropower are proposed. Keywords: hydropower potential; small hydropower plants; investments in small hydropower.
No feasibility studies of the distribution of potentially opportune development between stations of different power were conducted. Meanwhile in Russia with technically possible methods and means, it is possible to produce at least 350 billion kW · h of electric power per year in small hydropower plants in Russia. Small HPPs in Russia or objects of small hydropower (SHP), in accordance with accepted classification, are subdivided depending on power into the following classes: HPPs up to 10 kW, picoHPPs; HPPs up to 100 kW, microHPPs; HPPs up to 1000 kW, miniHPPs; and HPPs up to 30,000 kW, small HPPs [2]. Small hydropower had the greatest development in the 1940s and 1950s in the USSR. The powerful industrial development and enhancement of the agricultural industry required more and more electric power. In addition to large HPPs, numerous small HPPs were built. If in the pre-war years in the USSR there were 950 small HPPs built, more than 6, 500 small HPPs were counted. Figure 1 shows the total installed and mean power of small HPPs according to the USSR Central Statistical Administration [2]. One must note that the increase in the number of small HPPs was given impetus by existing difficulties with connecting agricultural consumers to centralized networks. Under such conditions, small HPPs are the optimal solution for autonomous energy supply of villages and farms, as well as mills, bakeries, and small production in remote, mountain, and hard to reach regions [3]. In this the labor costs were not considered, and nobody considered the actual payback of the construction. The chief objective was to provide the electricity power of a specific object of the socialist economy
According to feasibility studies in the 1960s, the share of the USSR was approximately 12% of world hydropower resources. The power of the potential hydro resources of the former USSR was estimated at 450 million kW, with a mean annual output of 4000 billion kW · h, which includes the fact that the hydropower resources of large and medium rivers are 381 million kW, or 3338 billion kW · h; and small rivers, 56 million kW, or 493 billion kW · h [1]. The use of hydropower resources is associated with inevitable losses: hydraulic, mechanical, electrical, and
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