Darbandikhan hydropower plant struggles with lack of water, funds

DARBANDIKHAN, Kurdistan Region — A decrease in water levels and lack of funds have contributed to Sulaimani province’s Darbandikhan hydropower plant generating less energy than in previous years, employees tell Rudaw.

Constructed in 1961, the plant has three 83 megawatt Francis turbine generators. A comparative lack of rain this year has reduced the water intake to the namesake dam this year.

“This time last year, two turbine-generators were working non-stop,” Bakhtiyar Tofiq, an employee at the hydropower plant, told Rudaw. “Because the water level has decreased at the Darbandikhan dam this year, we can’t work our turbines as much as we need. We run only one turbine which produces 60 megawatts per hour.”

Last year this time, two of the turbine-generators were running for 16 hours a day. They would generate 2,656 megawatts of electricity per day.

However, it has now been reduced to only one turbine-generator which works for only seven hours per day, producing 420 megawatts.

Moreover, the hydropower plant is also struggling to repair the machines due to a lack of funds.

“Our main issue at the Darbandikhan hydropower plant is the lack of funds in our budget,” Farouq Abdullah, the executive manager of the plant, told Rudaw. “In 2020, we generated [almost] 550,000 megawatts of electricity. If we multiply it by 15 dinars per kilowatts (which is sold to citizens at this price), it calculates to nearly 7,650,000,000 dinars. With this, if they contribute nearly two billion dinars [to us from this], the issues would be resolved.”

According to figures from the hydropower plant directorate, the plant produced 583,445 megawatts of electricity in 2017.

However, due to the increase in water levels in 2019, more than one million megawatts were generated that year. In 2020, it produced only 511,650 megawatts.

However, the number has decreased over the last three months. So far, it produced only 63,000 megawatts.

At a height of 103 meters, the dam is able to store three billion cubic meters of water. Currently, water levels rest at around 80 meters, and the dam has only 1.2 billion cubic meters of water.

If water levels decline another 30 meters, the hydropower plants will stop generating electricity altogether.

Halo Mohammed

此博客中的热门博文

Water Turbine Design for Small Scale Hydro Energy

https://www.boland-hydroturbine.com/ Selecting the Best Type of Water Turbine Design Selecting the best type of water turbine design for your particular situation often depends on the amount of head and flow rate that is available at your particular location and whether it is at the side of a river or stream, or the water is to be channelled or piped directly to your location. Other factors include whether you want an enclosed “reaction turbine design” such as the Francis turbine or an open “impulse turbine design”, such as the Pelton turbine as well as the speed of rotation of your proposed electrical generator. By analysing all of these factors together you can get some indication of what type of Water Turbine Design may work best for your particular situation. Knowing the difference between a Pelton and Francis turbine for example, will help make the choice easier. The following table gives a basic idea of which particul

阅读全文

Types of Hydropower Plants

There are three types of hydropower facilities: impoundment, diversion, and pumped storage. Some hydropower plants use dams and some do not. The images below show both types of hydropower plants. MPOUNDMENT The most common type of hydroelectric power plant is an impoundment facility. An impoundment facility, typically a large hydropower system, uses a dam to store river water in a reservoir. Water released from the reservoir flows through a turbine, spinning it, which in turn activates a generator to produce electricity. The water may be released either to meet changing electricity needs or to maintain a constant reservoir level. www.boland-hydroturbine.com DIVERSION A diversion, sometimes called run-of-river, facility channels a portion of a river through a canal or penstock. It may not require the use of a dam. PUMPED STORAGE Another type of hydropower called pumped

阅读全文

Hydropower, the only solution for cheapest power generation

https://www.boland-hydroturbine.com/ Hydropower has the lowest life-cycle cost of any power generation technology. Hydropower is a potential life-saver for Pakistan. Yet its development has been hampered for decades. Hence, only 15 percent of Pakistan’s over 60,000MW hydropower potential has been developed in 70 years. Hydropower plants power generation can give a country economy a new path of progress. Despite initial costs and long gestation periods, hydropower plants have almost no fuel cost and have operational lives of over a century. New hydropwer plants generate electricity at Rs6-10 per unit compared to thermal power plants’ Rs15-25 per unit. All other power-generating technologies have up to 30 years of project life and need up to four times expensive plant replacements in foreign exchange. Wind and solar technologies are solely dependent on the weather. They can at best supplement but not replace hydropower which, amo

阅读全文

Boland Hydropower

搜索此博客