Energetyka Wodna 2 2022 1684656779
Energetyka Wodna 2 2022 1684656779
10years
2/2022 (42)
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ISSN 2299-0674
E W 2/2022 (42) 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
10years
2/2022 (42)
FREE COPY
ISSN 2299-0674
International quarterly
NO 1/2022 (41) – estimated readership: 2 500 unique recipients www.energetyka-wodna.pl
NEWS
3 HYDRO 2022 – the global community together again Editorial office:
4 News from TRMEW Michał Kubecki – Editor in Chief
Michał Lis – Managing Editor
4 The smallest SHP in Poland in the support system Aleksandra Wołowiec – Editor
Dominika Wójtowicz – Editor
5 POLCOLD – reactivation and participation in the XXVII Congress of Large Dams [email protected]
6 The LIFE 2022 call has started – €598 million is available! mobile: +48 518 304 194
Subscription and advertising:
6 Calendar Monika Grzybek
7 30th Jubilee Scientific & Technical Conference PEMINE [email protected]
DTP:
8 100 years of the hydropower plant in Rosnowo Gustaw Nowak
8 The new investment will increase the capacity of Dębe hydropower plant [email protected]
Printing house:
10 Wide-ranging restoration plans on World Fish Migration Day 2022 Agencja Wydawnicza „ARGI”
10 New reservoir will be built in the Kleszczewo municipality ul. Żegiestowska 11
50–542 Wrocław
11 Weir renovations in Podlaskie Province will increase retention in the Narew Valley Program council:
11 Reconstruction of reservoir in Mazovia – contract is ready Wojciech Majewski
Janusz Steller
11 First QGIS plug-in of State Water Holding Polish Waters Bogusław Puchowski
Ewa Malicka
12 From Around the World Radosław Koropis
Robert Szlęzak
PRACTICE
Andrzej Grześ
14 Rising electricity prices – an opportunity or a problem for owners of RES installations? Małgorzata Stolarska
Michał Krzyszkowski
16 Challenges in the construction, erection, or rehabilitation
Photo on cover:
phase of a hydro power plant – mitigation strategies SHP Sromowce V under construction
19 Improving the efficiency of water pumps and turbines Source: Enerko Energy Sp. z o.o.
Publisher:
22 How do I get started with BIM? Polish Association for Small Hydropower
24 Voith Hydro’s future-ready, compact solutions Development (TRMEW)
ul. Królowej Jadwigi 1
LAW 86-300 Grudziądz
phone: +48 (56) 46 49 644
26 EU Restoration Law and small hydropower fax +48 (56) 46 49 643
28 Polish Energy Policy Until 2040 – what will the Polish Power Industry look like in 2040? e-mail: [email protected]
www.trmew.pl
PROJECTS
30 The hidden potential of the Dunajec River
37 Virtual Power Plant of TAURON Ekoenergia sp. z o.o. as a response to the challenges of
RES system development
38 Utilising external funding to expand the distribution network of ZEW Niedzica SA Orders for institutional subscription adopts
Kolporter Sp. z o.o. Sp.k. Information available
KNOWLEDGE at the hotline number 0 801 40 40 44 or on
the website www.dp.kolporter.com.pl
40 Empirical estimation of the coarse soil hydraulic conductivity in practice
It was published: 01.08.2022
46 We can, with hydropower: how water, wind and sun can combine to meet climate goals Editorial office and publisher are not
responsible for the content of published ads.
ECOLOGY
The content presented in the articles does
48 The fishlift – bridging the ecological gap including electricity production not always coincide with the views of the
editorial staff.
52 Cities of green, blue and energy
Media partners
2 ENERGETYKA WODNA
NEWS
T
he theme of this year's edition was
Photo. Opening remarks by Alison Bartle, Editor-in-Chief of The International Journal on Hydropower and Dams
the maxim "The role of hydropower
in global recovery" which was origi- and current hydropower development is • due to the loss of storage capacity of
nally intended to refer to the reconstruc- too slow for existing needs, reservoirs, it is important to design new
tion of the world economy, affected by the • dynamic growth of storage capacity in facilities in such a way as to minimize the
COVID19 pandemic, however it has taken newly built pumped storage plants is problem of sedimentation.
on special significance as a result of the expected in the coming years,
ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which was • one of the important trends in European Among the participants of the event was
clearly emphasized by the organizers of hydropower will be modernization and the Polish representation consisting of: Ewa
the event. The term energy independence, renovation of existing facilities, Malicka, President of TRMEW, Piotr Wło-
forgotten in recent years, has become rel- • hydropower should be treated as darski, brand ambassador of IOZE hydro,
evant again. a significant tool for mitigating climate and the author of this article on behalf
changes of “Energetyka Wodna” quarterly. How-
The topics of the conference also referred • consistent action and consolidation of ever, the Polish accent had a much greater
to the role of hydropower, including the entire industry is needed to lobby at dimension, thanks to the media coopera-
pumped storage power plants, in the the EU level and educate the public, as tion, which continued as in previous years,
energy transition to mitigate climate the benefits that hydropower offers are between the HYDRO organizer, Aqua
change. In addition, the thematic sessions not widely known outside our industry, Media International publishing house, and
addressed issues such as the use of avail- • the image of hydropower needs to be the editorial board of "Energetyka Wodna",
able hydropower potential with a focus on changed, as the public perceives the within the framework of which our quar-
developing countries, engineering chal- industry as old and undeveloped, which terly in English version was distributed to
lenges encountered during the construc- is contrary to the facts. An example is all participants of the event in the already
tion of new dams and hydropower plants, the progress that has been made in envi- legendary HYDRO bags.
lessons learned during design, construc- ronmental technologies and operations,
tion, operation and repair, the impact of optimization of production, robotization HYDRO trade fairs and conferences are
climate change on hydropower plants, or remote monitoring, an excellent source of inspiration and
the interdependence between hydro- • the development of technology for the knowledge about current trends in the
power and other RES technologies, lessons damming of rivers and care for the envi- global hydropower industry. Each time
learned from investments carried out in ronment is the responsibility of the the event ends, I am left with a certain
disaster-prone areas. industry, not to create a bad image of dissatisfaction, as the three conference
hydropower, days are far too short to take full advan-
This year's conference also included • hydropower plants should be designed tage of all that is on offer. Therefore, my
a thematic session devoted entirely to the and built with prudence, responsibility, thoughts turn with curiosity towards the
HYPOSO project, which aims to develop respect for the forces of nature, the prin- next edition of HYDRO, which will be
hydropower in selected African and Latin ciples of sustainable development and hosted next year in Edinburgh.
American countries and promote European the interests of local communities and
suppliers of equipment and services for neighboring countries,
hydropower plants. • when planning new investments, it is
necessary to keep in mind the long time
Among the most important conclusions horizon in which hydropower plants will
of the conference were the insights of the operate, rather than focusing solely on
chairmen of the various panel sessions, short-term profits,
which can be taken as a signpost for the • the issue of safety of hydroelectric struc-
industry for the coming years: tures is becoming a priority in the con-
Michał Lis
• new capacity is needed for the global text of the advanced age of existing Managing editor
economy accelerating after a pandemic dams around the world, „Energetyka Wodna”
E W 2/2022 (42) 3
NEWS
T
he Hydropower Congress began on beautiful landscapes. On Saturday, the last monitoring the situation and react quickly
2nd June, which is the annual meet- day of the congress, the TRMEW General to any changes and relevant news in the
ing of TRMEW members and support- Meeting was held. Traditionally, we dis- coming months. Best wishes!
ers. This time the event took place at the cussed the Association's current activities,
wonderful Kliczków Castle. We are pleased finances and further plans.
that the attendance was good, especially
during the part devoted to discussing cur- We are planning to organise our next con-
rent situation of hydropower plants in ference in November/December this year -
Poland. During the conference, the speak- please reserve your time for us now!
ers were, as usual, our indispensable Board
members Ewa Malicka and Radek Koropis, In the flurry of work in preparation of the
as well as our Supporting Partners from Congress, we have not forgotten our leg- Monika Grzybek
Office manager
Renpro, Respect Energy, IOZE hydro and islative activities. We have recently submit- Polish Association for Small
Aqua-Tech. In addition, our guests were ted proposals for revisions to the draft act Hydropower Development
T
he thirteen-kilometer-long Cedron marized the owner, Mr. Roman Prena of
Stream, which is a right-bank tributary his investment.
of the Reda River, feeds the smallest
hydropower plant in Poland - the Wejhe- The Wejherowo SHP will benefit from
rowo SHP. Upstream of the plant, there is the feed-in tariff system for the next 24
a small pond closed by a weir equipped months, selling electricity to an obligated
with a wooden gate, next to which the seller. It seems interesting to ask how it
inlet channel to the turbine chamber of will fare under market conditions, after the
the power plant begins. The power plant end of this period
has been built in 1993, at a site of a for-
mer water mill, which was in operation Radosław Koropis
Vice President of the Management Board
until the 1980s. Interestingly – rather than Polish Association for
a water wheel – the old mill was equipped Small Hydropower Development
4 ENERGETYKA WODNA
NEWS
T
h e f o l l o w i n g m e m e b e r s w e re an extraordinary wide range of subjects. to an international cooperation dealing
appointed to the committee (repre- The days were full of meetings of national with a safety, design, construction and
sentatives of IMGW, PGW WP i MI): and regional Committees, workshops, sym- exploitation of dams. The direct contacts
Piotr Śliwiński – the president of POLCOLD, posia, young engineer’s forum, exhibitions made allow to develop a collaboration in
Krzysztof Wrzosek – the v-ce president, and finally, technical presentations. This the nearest future. The reestablishment of
Aneta Krawczyk – the secretary, Jerzy Gam- time the main questions discussed were: POLCOLD and its presence on the Con-
dzyk, Paweł Wiejacz, Wojciech Skowyrski, Concrete dams design innovations and gress reopened the possibilities for such
Przemysław Sobiesak and Paweł Płoński. performance, incidents and accidents con- cooperation with ICOLD.
cerning dams, surveillance, instrumenta-
For a beginning 3 technical committees tion, monitoring, data acquisition & pro-
were established: cessing and dams and climate change.
• subsoil and construction (KIP), The cooperation of POLCOLD with ICOLD
• safety and supervision (BIK), was renewed during the Congress. Our
• exploitation and modernization (EIM), delegation had arranged the meetings
cooperating with their counterparts in with the General Secretary of ICOLD, the
ICOLD. presidents - former and the new one just
elected - and the president of EurCold. The
With the development of POLCOLD the aim of the talks was to allow polish rep-
committees will be expanded, modified resenatives to take part in technical com-
and created the new ones depending on mittees activities and also discussed the
Piotr Śliwiński
the interest and the needs. Soon there possibility of translations of ICOLD mate- President
will be created a team of polish experts rials to Polish and presentation of men- Polish Comittee of Large Dams (POLCOLD)
T
he EU Commission has allocated €598 Deadlines for submitting proposals for
million this year to support projects this year's LIFE call are: More details on the types of projects that
related to nature conservation, envi- • subprograms for promotion of circular econ- can be financed with LIFE program funds
ronmental protection, climate action and omy and quality of life, nature and biodiver- and tips on how to apply are available at
the transition to clean energy in Poland. sity improvements, climate change mitigation https://cinea.ec.europa.eu/
and adaptation – traditional projects (SAP):
Under the four LIFE subprograms, the dis- 4th October 2022;
tribution of available funds is as follows: • clean energy transition subprogram
• nature and biodiversity – €242 million (includ- – LIFE Action Grants:
ing €145 million for strategic projects); 16th November 2022;
• circular economy and quality of life - • strategic projects (SIP and SNAP):
Press office
€158 million (including €52.8 million for 8th September 202 – deadline for sub- National Fund for Environmental
strategic projects); mission of project card; Protection and Water Management of Poland
Calendar
10–12.08.2022 POWER CHINA 2022
www.bspexpo.com
Guangzhou, China Organizer – Guangdong Grandeur International Exhibition Group
6 ENERGETYKA WODNA
NEWS
T
he Conference includes the following • safe exploitation of electrical machines The registration fee for participants
topics: and electromagnetic compability, amounts to €550 – includes accommoda-
• insulation systems and materials. tion and board (with banquet), participa-
• design, exploitation and diagnostics of tion of the conference and a copy of the
electrical machines, Due to the great interest during the pre- Procceedings. For a single room an extra
• electromobility, including the design, vious conference PEMINE, a separate ses- fee €160 will be charged.
features and exploitation of vehicles sion will be a session on electromobility,
with electric drives, where we will present the issues related to
• new concepts of electrical motors, the design, operation and transport vehi-
• designing and calculation of motors, cles with electric drive. The conference Information is provided by:
The secretary of the conference,
• permanent magnet motors, will showcase electric vehicles, including Msc Mariusz Czechowicz
• exploitation, diagnostics of electrical off-road version, and all interested par- phone +48 (32) 258-20-41 ext. 25,
motor, ticipants will have the opportunity to per- mob. +48 606-308-827
fax +48 (32) 259-99-48
• monitoring, testing and modern meas- sonally test them during a test drive. Since e-mail: [email protected]
urement equipment, the conference is an ideal event to show www.komel.katowice.pl/tekst/pemine.html
Specialized anti-corrosion
and construction services
Stanisław Owsianka
www.anbud-ns.pl
E W 2/2022 (42) 7
NEWS
T
he origins of today's Rosnowo hydro-
power plant date back to 1922. It is
placed deep in a large forest com-
plex located within the Białogard Plain,
on the Radew River. A derivation canal
with a length of about 2662 meters was
built for the purpose of supplying a small
hydropower plant there. An old water-
mill once operated on the oxbow lake of power plant was able to resume its oper- plant’s staff, a trash rack cleaner has been
the Radew River. The power plant uses ation. Today, a number of safeguards and installed. Thus, manual labour required
the retention at Rosnowskie Lake, cooper- procedures are in place at all of Energa's for the operation of the power plant has
ates with the Niedalino hydropower plant, hydropower plants to prevent events simi- effectively been halved.
built in 1912 to protect the nearby area lar to the one at Rosnow in 1940.
from flooding. Due to its nature and location, the Ros-
Energa OZE modernized the power plant nowo hydropower plant is a peaking
During World War II, in March 1940, there in 2009 and 2011, installing modern power plant. As flows increase due to
was a construction accident. The thaw speed governors. In 2011, a new shaft has rainfall, snowfall or thaw, it's operating
after a very cold winter caused a large been delivered to replace the one in the time increases. The hydropower plant is
outflow of the Radew River and broke generating unit number 2. In 2015, com- equipped with three Francis twin-rotor
the dam on the Rosnowo Canal. The prehensive (both surface and in-depth) turbines, each with an installed capac-
flood wave, pushing massive ice blocks concrete repairs were carried out on: ity of 1.1 MW and a rotational speed of
reached far beyond the limits of Kosza- the intake walls, intake’s abutments and n=375 rpm and three 1,690 kVA genera-
lin, going all the way to the Parsęta River. dividing pillar, the thrash rack and hoist- tors, mounted on a common shaft with all
There was considerable damage of build- ing service platform, as well as external the turbines. The total installed capacity of
ings and bridges, while communication walls, stairs, channel embankment pro- the power plant is 3.297 MW.
along flooded roads was also disrupted tection and anti-corrosion coatings of
for a period of time. It was not until 1944 the regulating weir equipment. In order Press office
that the damage was repaired and the to improve the working conditions of the Energa Group
T
he next stage of construction of the sets. The relocation of the control room ated by the Dębe hydropower plant. The
new control room for the high-volt- is the first step in the planned investment modernization will also improve periodic
age switching station (HV) at the Dębe process, the next step will be the mod- maintenance.
hydropower plant is being carried out by ernization of the existing switching sta-
the Warsaw Branch of PGE Dystrybucja. This tion," explains Sylwester Szczensnowicz, Press office
investment is combined with the modern- general director of the Warsaw Branch. PGE Dystrybucja
8 ENERGETYKA WODNA
NEWS
R
iver Basin Management Plans are the objectives of water-dependent protected Programme of Surface Waters’ Restoration
among the most important planning areas. Consultation of II RBMPs resonated (NPSWR). In the II RBMPs, a total of techni-
documents in water management. with the public, particularly in the context of cal measures to improve hydromorphologi-
One of the biggest challenges of the cur- water renourishment, whereby sets of reme- cal conditions, which are part of the meas-
rent update of the plans was development of dial measures for the elimination of hydro- ures indicated in the NPSWR, were assigned
solutions for improving the hydromorpho- morphological pressures were expanded. to 1,064 river UBWs.
logical status of rivers and planning of the Additional technical measures to restore
priority actions. The planning cycle for 2022- the biological continuity of rivers have been In the 2nd update of the RBMPs, measures
2027 started with the identification of pres- identified, also in terms of renourishment indicated in the Plans of Protection Task/
sures with their assignment to uniform bod- and the range of non-technical measures has Protection Plans for protected natural areas,
ies of water (UBW), water regions and river been expanded to result in increasingly bet- including Natura 2000 areas, were also
basin districts. The work resulted in the cre- ter living conditions for aquatic organisms. included. A total of 7,791 remedial measures
ation of a national database of hydromor- were planned for 1,175 river UBWs nation-
phological changes – the first of its kind in During the planning work, the experts iden- wide. In addition, close to 2,000 actions have
Poland – containing more than half a mil- tified in detail specific damming structures been identified for 1,023 river UBWs, which
lion sites. Thanks to the information gath- that generate pressures leading to the dete- include the identification of the grounds for
ered, it became possible to plan comprehen- rioration of, among other things, fish migra- implementation of remedial actions in pro-
sive remedial measures for all uniform bodies tion conditions and proposed measures for tected areas. These focus, among others, on
of water, through which good water status their restoration. These measures relate to reducing the negative impact of damming
could be achieved, improved or maintained. the development and implementation of the facilities on environmental objectives, main-
selected option for unblocking specific river, taining the natural character of the riverbed
There are 18,424 remedial actions planned the reconstruction of transverse structures in and implementing environmental require-
for implementation for the surface UBWs, a way that ensures the restoration of biolog- ments for rivers boasting a high population
and more than 70% are for the elimination ical continuity and the control of the oper- of submerged plants.
or reduction of significant pressures affecting ation of fish migration facilities. In terms of
the hydromorphological conditions of rivers ensuring biological and morphological con-
and streams, including biological continu- tinuity of rivers and streams, a total of 1,473 Press office
ity, water dynamics and flow conditions and measures have been identified for 1/4 of the State Water Holding Polish Waters
T
he Kleszczewo municipality receives felt by the intensive agriculture carried out facility will then begin. The total cost of the
annual rainfall of less than 550 mm, in these areas. The most important task of investment is almost PLN 22.07 million, the
one of the lowest in Poland. There are the reservoir with a retention capacity of funding from the Regional Operational Pro-
no lakes or wetlands and meadows cover 242,000 m3 will be to store almost 67,000 m3 gram for Wielkopolskie Province amounting
only a small area. The scarcity of rainwa- of water for agricultural irrigation, includ- to more than PLN 16.21 million.
ter and the poorly permeable ground, with ing irrigation of grasslands. The water bal-
practically no forests, cause serious prob- ance and retention capacity of the catch-
lems with low specific runoff and erratic ment area are going to be improved and Wojciech Kwinta
flows. The water deficit can particularly be residents shall be protected from periods of inzynieria.com
10 ENERGETYKA WODNA
NEWS
B
oth weirs were constructed in the weir gates andbridge slabs. The contrac- ing network of drainage ditches. The cost
1980s. During their operation, tech- tor will also renew steel footbridges, con- of the planned works amounts to almost
nical corrections were made, mainly trol rooms and the paved surfaces inside, PLN 9 million. They will be completed
in order to protect the upper and lower as well as the entrances to the crossing in the second half of 2023. The Regional
embankments. The gates, abutments and slabs. Babino and Rzędziany weirs dam the Water Management Board in Białystok has
control rooms were not renovated. The water of the Narew Valley for the needs of also commissioned design works for the
Babino weir has been opened in 1984. It is the Narew National Park and nearby agri- reconstruction of four weirs on the Kuwaski
a Class IV structure of reinforced concrete, culture. Among other things, their function Canal and two on the Jabłonka River, as
with a fixed sill, a 2x7.0 m clearance and is to improve water distribution for agricul- well as eight damming structures on the
a damming height of 1.32 m. The Rzęd- ture (especially during the crop-growing Gać River together with another two weirs
ziany weir has been opened a year later season) by affecting the network of drain- and a penstock on the Kulikówka River.
and has a similar construction, but with age ditches between Rzędziany and Babino
a damming height of 2.25 m. The refur- villages. The damming of water takes place
bishment of both weirs will include the all through the year with 14-day breaks
restoration of abutment walls, pillars, race to allow fish migration and breaks neces- Wojciech Kwinta
floor structure, as well as strengthening of sary for harvesting grass and hay from weir inzynieria.com
T
he Ruda Reservoir has been created by flaps and groynes. The reservoir will also be of the reservoir will improve oxygen content
damming of Mławka River. The main desludged (at an area of 38 hectares) and in water, which will benefit the species diver-
purpose of constructing this struc- a fish ladder is going to be be built. The sity of aquatic animals residing in the reservoir.
ture was to increase retention and protect damming levels and the size of the can- The reservoir will also once again become an
against floods and drought. For the cur- opy will not be changed and the expected attractive recreational destination.
rent renovation, the facility will be emptied result of the reconstruction will be reinstate- Wojciech Kwinta
in two stages (so as to protect the aquatic ment of the original parameters of the Ruda inzynieria.com
T
he database plug-in can be down- in the form of lists, map compositions • flood hazard maps,
loaded from the official QGIS repos- or vector data, please visit the website • flood risk maps.
itory. In the current version 1.0.1, 28 https://www.wody.gov.pl/. Available the-
WMS viewing services are available, bring- matic tabs include:
ing the total to over 400 thematic layers. • map of Hydrographic Division of Poland Press office
In order to acquire the above resources in 1:10,000 scale, State Water Holding Polish Waters
E W 2/2022 (42) 11
NEWS
18.03.2022 M
IGA supports first private sector led hydro plant in Gabon
22.03.2022 F
ichtner to support new pumped storage project
ment in Wales. The Glyn Rhonwy site in Llanberis comprises two Fichtner’s services on the project include a value engineering
disused slate quarries which will be re-purposed as reservoirs for phase, followed by the preparation of tender documents and sup-
the new-build pumped storage system. The reservoirs will have port during tendering.
29.03.2022 N
orwegian hydro to help power silicon metal production
29.03.2022 C
onstruction starts at Gratkorn hydropower plant, Austria
12 ENERGETYKA WODNA
NEWS
06.04.2022 N
yamwamba II hydro plant operational in Uganda
13.05.2022 W
orld's first 600 rpm pumped storage unit in commercial operation
The world’s first reversible pumped storage unit with 600 rpm 15-day trial operation at the beginning of May and was officially
and 350 MW has been successfully placed into operation at the put into commercial operation. The station has a rated head of
Changlongshan pumped storage plant in E Zhejiang Province, 710 m which is among the highest in China. The new unit’s rated
China, as Voith Hydro has announced. Voith has provided two speed of 600 rpm with a capacity of 350 MW is a world’s first for
complete power units (5 and 6) to the six unit project, which has such high-capacity and high-head units.
an installed capacity of 2.1 GW. Unit 5 successfully passed the
26.05.2022 S
tudy investigates feasibility of restoring Sweden's largest pumped storage plant
02.06.2022 S
tatkraft opens new small hydro plants in Norway
Kjela power plant is located at the top of the Tokke/Vinje regu- “The power plants are good examples of Statkraft's significant
lated watercourse and utilizes the head from the regulated Kjelav- investment in upgrading Norwegian hydropower assets,” said CEO
atn lake in the Haukelifjell mountain area. The power plant has an Christian Rynning-Tønnesen. ‘Vesle Kjela and Storlia power plants
installed capacity of 8.5 MW and provides a production of approx- were built using existing infrastructure remaining after previous
imately 40 GWh a year. The Storlia power plant has the same hydropower developments, new technology and cost-effective
capacity and production and utilizes a head of 75m between the methods executing good cooperation with suppliers.”
07.06.2022 S
cottish micro hydropower plant became fully operational
E W 2/2022 (42) 13
PRACTICE
I
n 2016 Polish Renewable Energy (pol. Urząd Regulacji Energetyki) in pre- cable regulations in the period when the
Sources Act introduced the possibil- vious years, but in December this prob- positive negative balance was generated.
ity of settling the difference between lem also affected owners of small hydro-
the reference price and the market price power plants participating in the feed-in Growth in the amount of
for participants in the auction and feed-in tariff system. The scale of this phenome- electricity generated by renewable
premium support systems. The negative non is evidenced by the fact that PV and energy installations
balance is covered by Zarządca Rozliczeń onshore wind installations have been per- In 2021, we saw an intensive increase
S.A. (the name of the company can be manently generating a positive negative in the number of micro PV installations,
roughly translated as Settlement Adminis- balance (which occurs when the market whose total installed capacity exceeded
trator – which will be the term used further price is higher than the reference price) 6.1 GW, resulting in the release of about
on) after the producer submits a monthly since October 2021, and it, in accordance 2.7 TWh of electricity to the power grid.
application. The sharp increase in market with the provisions of Article 83 of the An analysis of the capacity utilization rate
prices in Q4 2021 resulted in a situation Renewable Energy Sources Act, must be for PV micro-installations shows that it is
where the price determined based on the returned to the Settlement Administrator. half that obtained for industrial PV instal-
TGEbase index was greater than the refer- The return of the balance shall be made on lations. This therefore means that pro-
ence or bid price submitted in the auction a cumulative basis in subsequent months, sumers also consumed in the same period
system. It first began to affect owners of and in the event that this does not occur, approx. 2.7 TWh without taking it from
photovoltaic and wind power installations the return has to be made at the end of the electricity system. Taking into account
14 ENERGETYKA WODNA
Source: Own study PRACTICE
2,000 2020
2021
2022
1,500
Price [PLN/MWh]
1,000
500
0
Ja
Ja
Ja
Ja
Ja
Ja
Ja
Ja
Fe
Fe
Fe
Fe
Fe
Fe
Fe
Ap
Ap
Ap
Ap
Ap
Ap
Ap
n
ar
ar
ar
ar
ar
ar
ar
b.
b.
b.
b.
b.
b.
b.
r.
r.
r.
r.
r.
r.
r.
.0
.0
.0
.1
.1
.2
.2
.3
.0
.0
.1
.1
.2
.2
.2
30
03
2
1
6
7
8
Fig. 2. Minimum and maximum price spread for FIX 1 in 2020, 2021 and 2022 for the period of 01.01–30.04
installations of higher capacity (for which Giełda Energii) for the first four months ernize small hydropower plants, which
the President of Polish Energy Regulatory of the year for years 2020-2022 shows should partially restore the support sys-
Authority has issued licenses or made an that the increasing share of energy from tem, the installation of electricity storage
entry in the small RES installation regis- RES installations significantly affects the facilities should also be considered. Bat-
ter), there are more than 15 GW of capac- structure of prices in particular periods tery storage facilities are finding increas-
ity installed as a part of weather-depend- of the day. In addition, a sharply increas- ing use in RES installations and are being
ent RES installations. It is worth noting ing spread, i.e. the difference between the used to provide a variety of services. The
that the Polish Energy Regulatory Author- minimum and maximum price on a given most classic one is time-shifting of sales,
ity issued promises of licenses for installa- day, can be observed. At the same time, taking advantage of increasing price vol-
tions with a capacity of more than 2.8 GW with the increase in the production of atility throughout the day. Experience with
last year. The variability of weather and electricity from photovoltaic installations 12 MWh and 6 MW storage units, which
time-of-the-day dependent renewables is since March 2022, the daily profile has are a component of a wind farm instal-
already clearly noticeable in the wholesale changed, with a clearly marked price mini- lation, indicates that at least two charg-
electricity market. mum in the midday hours. ing and discharging cycles are possible
per day. When the hourly billing scheme
Changing structure of generation Are RES support systems still needed? is changed to fifteen-minute billing, which
The above summary, compiled on the The situation in the energy markets reflects should happen next year, this frequency
basis of ENTSO-E data, allows us to note many different factors and is character- will increase many times over. Another ser-
a trend related to the change in the ized by very high volatility. Given the fur- vice provided by electricity storage will be
structure of electricity generation in the ther development of RES installations, flexibility-related regulations of the future.
period between January 2020 and May a decrease in the price of electricity should Intensive analytical work is currently
2022. The decline in electricity genera- be taken into account in the coming years. underway, which should change the legal
tion in 2022 from coal-fired power plants At the same time, the price in feed-in pre- environment in the near future, thus ena-
is being replaced mainly by energy gen- mium scheme and auctions takes inflation bling the provision of these services by
erated by onshore wind and photovol- into account, which means that RES pro- alliances of RES producers. This, in turn,
taic installations. Planned legal changes to ducers should care about guaranteeing will provide financial benefits that may be
allow the construction of new wind instal- stable settlement rules. Different types of a significant portion of revenues derived
lations through the liberalization of the sales strategies based on contracts for dif- from RES installations and these may be
"ten times height rule " onshore will cause ference or using various market indices necessary to maintain their profitability in
this trend to continue in the future. At the will not favourably secure future revenues. the future.
same time, this change will result in the At the end of September 2022, the sup-
emergence of very large price differences port system for small hydropower plants
in SPOT markets that were not observed that began selling electricity before 2005
in previous years. will finally expire. Currently, electricity
prices do not encourage significant capi-
High daily price volatility tal expenditures, but this seems to be an
An analysis of FIX 1 prices listed on the inappropriate and short-sighted strategy. Radosław Koropis
Polish Power Exchange (pol. Towarowa When taking steps to significantly mod- RENPRO sp. z o. o.
E W 2/2022 (42) 15
PRACTICE
H
USACE) • Guaranteed
ydro power plant (HPP) erection or parameters
rehabilitation projects are complex,
and experience shows that future
Owners/ Operators (Employers) and Con-
tractors are often faced with project hin-
"state of the art" Components of "fit for a reliable and
drances causing considerable delays or "superior quality" safe operation"
cost overruns/ additional costs. Thought-
out contractual concepts and provisions
Fig. 1. Defining the Scope of Works
considering the project specific situation
will help to minimise project-related risks. ity of the delivered works. There are dif- whole works. The role of the contract is to
ferent approaches to define the Scope of clearly attribute the respective responsibil-
The most important five critical success fac- Works. In countries with a long experience ities and to define the mutual obligations
tors are [1]: in hydro power plant construction pro- regarding the interfaces. The parties need
1. A clear-cut description of the Scope of jects, state utilities seem to prefer to spec- to decide who shoulders the risk if one lot
Works ify their requirements down to the small- upon which another lot is dependent is
2. Well thought-out provisions regarding est detail, e.g. down to the properties performed poorly or delivered too late.
the interface management of the construction material to be used,
3. Balanced provisions regarding the risk whereas in World-/ Development Banks-fi- As one of several Contractors has no direct
allocation to one or both Parties in case nanced projects Employers prefer a func- contractual relationship with anyone of the
of the occurrence of hindrances due to tional description of the plant to be deliv- Employer’s other Contractors, it is typically -
unforeseen events during the project ered - leaving it up to the Contractor how or should be, from a Contractor’s perspec-
execution to achieve this. tive - the Employer or his engineer (“Own-
4. A good Quality Assurance Program er’s Engineer”) who assumes the interface
linked with ample reporting obliga- As far as the Contractor shall adhere to management responsibility.
tions by the Contractor. This should go specific technical standards and norms
together with appropriate approval-, such as IEC, ASME or NEMA which do not The Employer himself has various legal
inspection- and instruction rights in directly result from the applicable legal relationships to other stakeholders of the
favour of the Employer norms, those norms should be explicitly project. He must comply with the con-
5. And last, but not at all least: a detailed listed in the so-called Employer’s Require- ditions of the compulsory state permits
Provisional Acceptance Procedure. ments. And, last but not least, the parties (construction permit; concession) or the
must agree on the guaranteed parame- requirements of the financing institutions
The definition of the Scope of Works ters such as – in view of a HPP - availabil- or the Off-Takers under Power Purchase
The contractual provision contain- ity, output, efficiency and accepted losses Agreements.
ing the Scope of Works definition is of the transformers.
the core clause of the contract. The Unforeseen events – risk allocation
definition must be clear-cut, avoid- The Interfaces and the Interface The allocation of risks between the
ing any ambiguity in the wording. Management Employer and the Contractor and the bal-
The definition of the Scope of Works will Coping with interfaces first of all requires ancing of the risks in view of the calculated
be the benchmark for evaluating the qual- both from a technical point of view as and offered contract price is one of the
well as from a contractual point of view to most challenging and difficult tasks while
¹T
he aim of this paper is to alert Owners/ Employers or
Contractors of critical issues potentially having a major identify the interfaces. In large scale pro- drafting and negotiating a hydro power
(financial) impact on the execution of a hydro power pro-
jects there are many interfaces: the inter- plant erection or rehabilitation contract.
ject, and to suggest, which critical issues should be consid-
ered when drafting the contract. Some issues such as the faces between the contractual parties, i.e. Not only might it be difficult to clearly
available remedies in case of defects or delay, termination
the Employer (Owner) and the Contrac- identify the potential risks and evaluate the
and suspension, or the applicable law and an appropriate
dispute resolution (state courts vs. arbitration) could not tor, the interfaces to the other stakehold- risk exposure; sometimes it seems that the
be considered. In no way shall it constitute and substitute
ers and the interfaces between different contractual parties do not have a clear idea
a specific legal advice, which will depend inter alia on the
applicable law. Contractors for different parts (lots) of the of the legal consequences of an agreed risk
16 ENERGETYKA WODNA
PRACTICE
E W 2/2022 (42) 17
PRACTICE / Challenges in the construction, erection, or rehabilitation phase of a hydro power plant – mitigation strategies
Extension of time?
• unpredictable • unpredictable
• unavoidable • unavoidable
• excessive burden on the • excessive burden on the
party affected party affected
• beyond the sphere of influ- • but resulting from risks
ence or risk of the party attributed to e.g. the con-
affected tractor
tions which the contractual parties do not provide for a risk sharing between both for major / critical components), inspec-
like. In this case they explicitly have to der- contractual parties, at least above a certain tion and instruction rights. Together with
ogate from the otherwise applicable pro- threshold, and are an incentive to quickly a good Quality Assurance program these
visions and stipulate provisions reflecting find a solution to overcome hindrances. rights aim to assure the overall quality of
their intentions. the requested Works. The quality assurance
Project Monitoring and Quality becomes increasingly important in the
There is a wide range of possibilities for Assurance execution of complex projects, in particu-
contractual solutions. Often, the party In complex and large-scale hydro power lar in times when the level of vertical man-
having better “control” of the risk or the plant contracts, Employers are well advised ufacturing integration seems to become
potential event, e.g. the Owner for the to require from the Contractor continuous continuously lower and supplied parts for
site conditions, or the party responsible and regular, prompt, complete and accu- key components are sourced in countries
for performing the environmental inves- rate information on the stage of comple- all over the world.
tigations in the planning phase of a pro- tion of the design, manufacturing and
ject, such as the geological or hydrologi- erection process and in particular on The Provisional Acceptance Procedure
cal investigations, will take the risk that the the occurrence of hindrances having an I recommend determining in detail the
circumstances prove to be different from impact on the price or the time for com- procedure and the Parties’ rights and
previously assumed. In recent years the pletion. Employers should reserve them- obligations. It should be e.g. determined
so-called Alliance Agreements are a pre- selves large approval (regarding the design under which conditions the trial run has to
ferred solution. These agreements typically and the engagement of subcontractors re-start and which is the time frame for the
Employer’s obligation to cooperate and to
Source: © Bettina Geisseler
18 ENERGETYKA WODNA
PRACTICE / ADVERTORIAL
C
haracteristics of interatomic inter-
actions include attraction from
a greater distance and repulsion
from a shorter distance. This 'tug-of-war' is
related to changes in the energy (loss-gain)
that is involved in the interaction between
atoms/particles of the surface and its sur-
roundings. An example of this might be
Photo 1. BELZONA(1341) SUPERMETALGLIDE, a coating whose surface is 20 times smoother than polished
adhesion and cohesion phenomena. The stainless steel
work of cohesion is related to the over-
coming of covalent bonds or crystalline
structures, i.e. actually breaking the inter-
nal cohesion of the material, but it is adhe-
sion that interests us. Adhesion is a phe-
nomenon involving joining of two surfaces
of different bodies (phases). The process of
their separation requires an expenditure of
energy equal to the work named the work
of adhesion.
polished stainless steel
(Ra 1.19 um) BELZONA(1341)
Physical basis of the phenomenon (Ra 0.078 um)
E W 2/2022 (42) 19
PRACTICE / Improving the efficiency of water pumps and turbines
Laboratory tests
A detailed study of the changes in pump
factory-made factory-made
parameters was carried out at the Pump
Laboratory of the Institute of Heat Engi-
neering of the Warsaw University of Tech- Fig. 1. Pel - Q - pump as manufactured and with Fig. 2. η – Q - pump as manufactured and with
nology, comparing the characteris- BELZONA(1341) composite coating BELZONA(1341) composite coating
20 ENERGETYKA WODNA
PRACTICE
300.00
[kWh/1,000 m3]
250.00
200.00
150.00
100.00
Type of pump
Fig. 3. Summary of energy consumption rate measurements for vertical pumps after pumping 1,000 m3 of Photo 4. 90 kW pump before and after coating with
circulating water. BELZONA(1341)
E W 2/2022 (42) 21
PRACTICE
B
uilding Information Modelling is pri- curve (Fig.1). The graph shows a comparison stage, a higher one at the operation stage.
marily associated with 3D models. of the effects of design changes as a func- In other words, the model is gradually sat-
And this is a correct association, but tion of cost at successive stages of the build- urated with data. What gives the integrated
the heart of BIM is information management, ing life cycle for traditional and integrated process an advantage over traditional invest-
which is the most valuable asset of the 21st (BIM) processes. The solid line clearly shows ment is the unified data exchange environ-
century. The following article presents the how much BIM can contribute at the design ment CDE (Common Data Environment)
benefits of using the BIM methodology. stage - from defining requirements to devel- used in the BIM methodology. This avoids
oping documentation. The costs of change documents scattered in 'hundreds' of bind-
What do we need data for? are comparable and the results for the BIM ers. The CDE is the central hub of communi-
The answer is simple: to make better deci- methodology are incomparably better. This cation between the participants in the con-
sions. And better decisions mean lower costs. is because design software in BIM allows GIS struction process and the "only source of
Lower costs mean savings, and savings mean spatial data to be integrated into the pro- truth" - everyone refers to the data available
higher profits on the annual balance sheet. ject. This combination gives an incomparably in the CDE and draws the necessary informa-
BIM methodology is a cost optimization tool better chance of locating risks and collisions. tion from there.
that can be successfully applied during the This, in turn, allows for a better quality project
design, construction and operation of build- to be realised. The developer/ordering authority defines the
ings. Interestingly, BIM can be implemented CDE and presents its information exchange
at any stage of the building lifecycle. It's not An example of this is an investment pro- requirements to the contractor by publish-
that if a building is designed in 2D it is 'lost' ject involving the extension of floodbanks. ing an EIR (Exchange Information Require-
to BIM. With BIM technology, we can con- A coordination project was developed on ments) document. The contractor, if he wants
vert old paper drawings and plans into digi- behalf of the contract engineer. A 3D model to carry out the project, must accept the cli-
tal form and create a 3D model from that. An of the structure was created and com- ent's requirements. As a rule, the contract-
example of such activities is the visualisation bined with GIS spatial data. This was already ing authority knows what performance infor-
of the Niepołomice Barrage. The concept of enough to conclude that: mation it needs in the subsequent phases
building the barrage was born in 1946, but • the planned redevelopment goes beyond of the life cycle of the facility and publishes
the project was not created until 1974. The the project boundary, a schedule of successive phases for moving
investment was not realised and the prob- • one of the access roads is designed at an to the next level of information detail. The
lems that arose at that time were not solved. angle that makes it impossible to drive contractor, according to the implementa-
These included: through. tion schedule, saturates the model with the
• hydraulic support for the Przewóz water- required data. As a result, the ordering party
way stage The project had already been handed over has complete and up-to-date documenta-
• regulation of groundwater levels for construction. What would the contrac- tion of the operation of the structure/build-
• improving flood protection tor do if he came across such errors during ing when it is accepted. Moreover, it is col-
construction? At the very least, he would lected in one place, systematised and with
On the order of Regional Water Manage- have demanded that they be corrected and clear access criteria. Such data is appreci-
ment Board of Kraków, an old project from waited patiently for a corrected design, eager ated after several years, when decisions have
1974 was digitised and a three dimensional to charge contractual penalties. Changes to to be made quickly in an emergency situa-
model of an investment designed almost the design were made quickly. The cost of tion and one does not know where to look
50 years earlier was made. This is a real and these changes was relatively low and the cli- for information.
quite spectacular example of using BIM tech- ent avoided significant financial losses and
nology to digitise analogue projects construction delays. A customised approach to BIM
BIM is not a universal recipe for solving all
Why BIM at the design stage? Savings on running costs problems, but it is a structured methodol-
If you are just planning an investment, using When implementing a construction pro- ogy of which a parameterised 3D model
BIM methodology in the design phase will ject using BIM technology, the investor has is a fundamental part. This means that
give you tangible benefits in the future. a chance to systematically collect data which changing any element of the model auto-
Thanks to the integration of GIS (Geographic is very valuable at the stage of the object's matically changes related elements. It is
Information System) data and BIM, the exploitation. In addition to geometric data, often the case that the visions of the client,
designer has much better opportunities to the BIM model stores operational informa- the designer and the contractor regard-
optimize the project than in a traditional 2D tion. The detail of geometric data is deter- ing the construction to be carried out dif-
process. This is illustrated by the Mac Leamy mined by the LOD (Level of details) clas- fer significantly. In a 3D model, there is no
22 ENERGETYKA WODNA
PRACTICE
Re
Co
De
Do esig
Te
Pe
Co
Pr an
no downtime,
op ag
nd
rm
qu
nc
ns
d
m
ta
cu n
er em
il
er
t
ep
ire
its
m
ru
ty e
en
t
m
ct
• optimal long-term scheduling, taking into
en
io
tat
n
ts
io
nt
n
Integrated process
account virtually any number of variables, Traditional process
• centralised information flow under the
Fig.1. Comparison of the effects of design changes for traditional and integrated (BIM) processes.
control of the CDE system,
which in effect provides: of Development and Technology publishes stakeholders in the construction process
• high quality project documentation, BIM document templates with discussion. from a technical, tactical and strategic per-
• the quality and timeliness of the tasks per- There are also a number of BIM consultants spective. It includes, among others:
formed, to help develop investment documentation • hardware and software recommendations,
• improves communication and cooperation and procedures. • the technical and operational conditions
between actors in the process , of the CDE data exchange platform,
• facilitates dialogue and public consultation How to choose them? The consultant • definitions for information purposes,
(for example on environmental issues), should clearly explain what he wants to do, • timetables,
• better asset management. how and why. The more incomprehensible • description of processes.
terminology falls from the mouth of such
The more effort we devote at the investment an expert, the further you should stay away A contractor wishing to submit a bid to
preparation stage, the faster and cheaper from him. BIM This is not secret knowl- carry out the project must accept the cli-
the investment will be realised. In BIM, it is edge and if someone hides behind the fact ent's requirements and confirm this in the
crucial to define the project's information that he or she is not revealing the "know BEP (BIM Execution Plan) document.
requirements (PIR document). how", this should arouse serious suspicion.
Employing a BIM Manager or BIM Infor-
If you decide to go for BIM, you need mation Manager, whether as an in-house
to know the basics of the methodology. or contracted employee, will allow for the
A very common problem is a lot of resist- proper preparation of the main BIM docu-
ance from investors who simply do not ment, the EIR - the Employer's Information
want to learn more about BIM. Despite Requirements. This is a document that sets
Tomasz Rajpold
appearances, it is relatively simple and out a set of requirements necessary for the CEO
does not take too much time. The Ministry effective exchange of information between HydroBIM
PRACTICE
L
atest inventions are Voith Hydro’s
M-Line portfolio as well as the in the small hydropower sector. It can be years with references all over the world.
already well-established StreamDiver. integrated in existing canals and weirs Today, installations from Austria to Indone-
The latter enables the usage of hydro- keeping the environmental impact of the sia, from Sweden to Brazil prove the effi-
power in locations where it had previously addition of electro-mechanical equipment ciency of this approach. Still 64 percent of
not been possible due to the demand- to a minimum. The same is true for its the world's existing dams and transverse
ing ecological requirements. To expand completely oil- and grease-free operation. structures are not used to produce hydro-
the range of application even more, the As it is installed completely underground electric power. By increasing the head
experts at Voith Hydro recently worked it is also extremely low in noise emissions. range up to 12 m, Voith was able to even
on a drop height extension. The result: an expand the StreamDiver's range of appli-
entire SteamDiver family. By reducing complex technology, it was cation. At a test rig in Austria everything
possible to at the same time achieve has been thoroughly tested to ensure
StreamDiver – tapping new potential a compact size and a highly mainte- highest customer satisfaction.
The StreamDiver, launched to the market nance-friendly and robust machine unit
in 2011, and designed for low-head appli- which has established itself step by step on A special highlight from the recent past
cations, was an important development the global hydropower market in recent Some time ago, the Brazilian special-
ist for small hydropower stations Ener-
gias Renováveis MAZP commissioned Bra-
zil's first StreamDiver power station. The
company specialized in environmental-
ly-friendly small hydropower stations, dis-
covered a natural gradient in the state of
Parana that had caught their eye due to the
stable water supply. They were looking for
a technical solution that would cover both
environmental and economic needs. The
answer: StreamDiver. The seven units were
manufactured, assembled and pre-tested in
Austria in less than one year before making
their way to the power house in Brazil. The
advantage of the technology lies, among
other things, in the compactness and com-
paratively low weight of the units.
24 ENERGETYKA WODNA
PRACTICE
The M-Line
advantages
at a glance:
• Short delivery time
and proven quality
• Application diagram
to check whether an M-Line
turbine is applicable
• Minimum powerhouse
dimensions
• Powerhouse design is
simplified to reduce
construction costs
• Pre-assembled modules
reduce erection and
commissioning time
M-Line Pelton
an operator can connect his machine to way, it can be installed and commissioned Francis is designed for applications from
the grid, the more likely he is to create the very quickly on site. The know-how of our 20 m to 80 m head and a flow rate up to
economic conditions for successful opera- technicians, decades of experience in tur- 3.80 m³/s. The units are always delivered in
tion. Therefore, in addition to investment bine construction and the latest techno- specific modules. In this way, transporta-
costs, the aspect of short delivery times is logical findings from our R&D center are tion is simplified and on-site work – espe-
also becoming increasingly important. As incorporated in every single turbine. cially in terms of concreting – is reduced.
this aspect is such a critical one the fun-
damental idea of a new development of The customer receives an application dia-
Voith Hydro was primarily to shorten it by gram at the beginning of the project, which
modularizing Pelton and Francis turbines provides information on whether an M-Line
resulting in a successful development with component can be used. Based on head
several further customer benefits. and flow, it is easy to identify the opti-
mum size in the application diagram and
The new M-Line is defined as a simplified, then immediately start planning the power Radu Carja
Head of Division Small Hydro
largely standardized turbine-generator house based on this recommended layout. Voith Hydro in St. Georgen, Austria
unit including auxiliary systems. The units
are pre-assembled and therefore delivered The M-Line Pelton is designed for appli-
to the power station as compact, ready- cations from 80 m to 340 m head, with Graphics come from the archive of
to-use units in up to 30% less time. In this a flow rate up to 1.60 m³/s. The M-Line Voith Hydro company.
Rozwiązania Modułowe
Modular
Modular Solutions
Solutions
Zastosowanie
New units nowych
reduce
New units reduce
hydrozespołów delivery
pozwala
delivery
time up totime
30% up to 30%
skrócić czas dostawy o 30%
LAW
T
he proposal of a new EU Renatur- EU Member states will develop their posi- With regard to Europe's water bodies, the
ation Law was announced as part tions on the Commission’s proposal. After European Commission proposes to remove
of the EU Biodiversity Strategy and that, the three institutions will negotiate barriers such as dams, weirs and locks that
is the first substantial addition to Euro- the final law in so called Trilogue negotia- are no longer in use as part of species and
pean environmental law since more than tions. This process will take approximately nature conservation measures. Overall aim
20 years. Before that, the Habitats Direc- until the end of 2023. is a renaturation target of at least 25,000 km
tive, Water Framework Directive and the of free-flowing rivers and streams by 2030.
EU Birds Directive, as well as the designa- The Commission proposal includes res-
tion of Natura 2000 protected areas had toration measures on at least 20 per- It needs to be highlighted that the Com-
been the main instruments for environ- cent of land and sea areas in the EU by mission emphasizes the removal of
mental protection. Its overall aim is to 2030. To this end, EU Member States will “… obsolete barriers, which are those
improve existing EU nature conservation be required to submit national restoration that are no longer needed for renewable
law and to include additional, binding plans to restore at least 30 percent of ter- energy generation,…” (Art. 7). Optimisti-
measures to restore habitats that have restrial and marine ecosystems that are not cally read for the hydropower sector, this
already been destroyed. in good conservation status by 2030. By could imply the preservation of the poten-
26 ENERGETYKA WODNA
Source: Statkraft
LAW
for the Nature Restoration Law. Another that small hydropower and environment
important aspect is to base any decisions go hand in hand.
on barrier removal on latest scientific evi-
dence. EREF had submitted in Decem- Depending on site specific conditions such
ber 2021 a bibliography of scientific arti- as the available quantity of water, several
cles that demonstrate small hydropower solutions are deployed to ensure river con-
and good ecological status can go hand in tinuity and enable up and downstream
hand. EREF’s Small Hydropower Chapter movement of migratory fish species and
reaches out to experts able to shed light breeding. New management systems for
on the role of small hydro in the ecological existing small hydropower plants stop the
current of "new conservation". This trend plant during the time of fish migration.
aims to approach biodiversity in a positive Releasing water through the gates attracts
way by looking to the future, particularly in migratory fish species such as salmon to
the context of climate change, and by inte- pass the plant during their up and down-
grating the societal role of rivers and the stream migration. An example for these
relationship with man. measures is the plant Anundsjö in Sweden¹.
Urgent need for new power This is combined with by-pass mecha-
Within the current double crisis with regard nisms for fish and sediment such as natu-
to energy security caused by Russia's inva- ral fishways past the plant, fish ladders as
sion of Ukraine as well as climate change well as guaranteeing minimum ecological
that appears much faster than forecasted, flows. Thanks to, among others, EU fund-
the EU needs the accelerate its decarboni- ing programmes, new solutions to ensure
sation of the European economy by using fish migration and river continuity have
all available forms of renewable energy, been developed. Small hydropower plants
including the small hydropower sector. also create new habitats for rare and pre-
Quick progress could be made through the cious water plants and waterfowls. With
refurbishment of some of the estimated its ditches and dammed water areas small
at least 200,000 abandoned small hydro- hydropower plants even form diverse and
Foto. SHP Anundsjö in Sweden power plants in the 27 EU Member states, structurally rich additional fish habitats.
the installation of kinetic turbines in Euro- Small hydropower plants enrich water bod-
pean lowlands and the exploitation of so ies with oxygen and clean rivers from all
tial of existing barriers to be (re-)equipped called hidden hydro power. sorts of waste floating in the water. A small
with small hydro plants. In addition, the hydropower plant in Austria for example
Commission wants projects of “overrid- If the basic ecological requirements are collects between 7-10 kg of plastic waste
ing public interest” ideally to be exempted met, e.g. sufficient residual flow in diver- on a monthly basis.
when discussing potential removals of sion power plants and fish migration aids
small hydropower plants. Furthermore, in the fish habitat, then there is usually Small hydropower plants do have an envi-
“The determination of the most suitable nothing to prevent good ecological sta- ronmental impact which however can be
areas for restoration measures … shall be tus despite the use of hydropower. Eco- strongly mitigated due to latest innovative
based on the best available knowledge and logical monitoring of watercourses very technical solutions. Like this, small hydro-
the latest scientific evidence” (Art. 4.4). often reveals stretches of water used for power and good ecological status can go
power generation where there is no or hand in hand without any problems.
EREF’s contribution included only a minimal difference to the unused
EREF is glad that the Commission fol- stretches. An example is the small hydro-
lowed EREF’s position in its proposals power plant Sauereggenbach in Austria.
under REPowerEU to consider renewable Biological assessments of the residual flow
energy projects as “overriding public inter- section and reference section outside the
est and in the interest of public safety”. power plant area show that both sections
This implies faster permitting and planning have the same fauna. Consequently, its
Dirk Hendricks
for renewable energy projects and their management is ecologically compatible. General Secretary
connection to the grid. EREF calls on the European Renewable Energies Federation (EREF)
Commission to make changes in EU sec- Hydropower and environment
ondary legislation regarding renewable Over the last decades, owners of hydro-
energy and species protection. This means power plants have invested billions of
an explicit exemption clause for all kind of Euros in upgrading existing plants with
renewable energy plants in the Renewable environmental mitigation measures, show- ¹ The plant is located on the small river Mo in the
Energy Directive and/or Habitats, Water ing their commitment and support to northern part of Sweden. The interdisciplinary
consortium of the EU project FIT Hydro
and Birds Directives. It also must be more the ecological requirements of the Water (https://www.fithydro.eu/) used it as a successful
explicitly included in the current proposal Framework Directive and demonstrating test case for these methods.
E W 2/2022 (42) 27
LAW
I
n 2021, the Council of Ministers tive effects of the energy transformation in power sources both by investing in already
adopted the so called "Energy Pol- those regions. existing ones, and by implementing nuclear
icy of Poland until 2040" (abbreviated energy by investing in both large reactors
as PEP2040), which is a strategic docu- As for the second pillar, the achievement (in excess of 1000 MW) and Small Modu-
ment setting out the directions of devel- of a zero-emission system will be based lar Reactors (SMR). Importantly, in light of
opment for the energy sector in Poland for primarily on nuclear energy and offshore the recent crisis in the raw materials mar-
the upcomig years. PEP2040 is a barome- wind farms. In addition, the system will be ket, PEP2040 is also expected to provide
ter of the Polish government's plans for the dispersed and "civic" energy (i.e.: produced for continued use of coal-fired generation
future of the energy sector, as well as direc- by private households) will be strength- units – the policy assumes the percentage
tions of development and investments in ened. In the interim period, energy security of energy generated by such sources may
the power sector in Poland. Although the is to be provided by natural gas solutions. periodically be increased in situations of
document was adopted only a year ago, The last pillar is based on improving air threat to a national energy security. At the
the current, swiftly changing economic quality, which in a way will already be other end, there lie investments in gas-fired
and political environment made it neces- the result of moving away from emis- generation capacity, which is to be revised
sary to start the work on revising the docu- sion-intensive energy sources. There will with accordance to the availability of such
ment, which in March 2022 resulted in the be a transformation of the heating sector, fuel, while also taking into account the fact
adoption of assumptions for changes to but also the development of passive and that natural gas prices are currently charac-
the PEP2040. zero-emission household buildings. terised by volatility and its availability may
potentially be limited.
What does PEP2040 currently assume? Assumptions of changes to the PEP2040
The key objective indicated in PEP2040 is Due to the dynamically changing political The ultimate target is to reduce the econ-
to achieve energy security for the coun- situation, Polish Council of Ministers rec- omy's dependence on hydrocarbons,
try, while – at the same time – ensuring the ognized the need to adjust PEP2040 and mainly natural gas and oil, but the strategy
competitiveness of the economy, increas- introduce additional assumptions to it. focuses on energy supply diversification in
ing energy efficiency and reducing the First of all, in addition to the previously the interim period. Finally, in addition to
environmental impact of the energy sector. mentioned three pillars, the Council of investments in generation sources, energy
Optimal use of domestic energy resources Ministers intends to add a fourth pillar efficiency is to be improved through
is also indicated as an objective. called "energy sovereignty". A specific and investments in e.g. thermo-modernisation
key element of this pillar is to achieve rapid of buildings, but also by aiming at reduc-
The achievement of the above goals, is independence of the national economy tion of energy usage in the industry.
based today on 3 fundamental pillars: fair from fossil fuels imported from Russia.
transition, zero-carbon energy system and The other 3 pillars previously mentioned Hydropower in PEP2040
good air quality. Each of the pillars consists within the original PEP2040, on the other PEP2040 also includes hydropower solu-
of specific actions aimed at achieving the hand, are supposed to be part of such tions as one of the elements of renewa-
objectives specific to each of them. A fair energy sovereignty plan. As a result of the ble energy sources development. However,
transition means that everyone will be able implementation of the assumed changes, the authors of the strategy note that the
to participate in the transformation of the the PEP2040 is to provide for further, dyna- chances for intensive hydropower develop-
energy sector to a low carbon one. The mised development of renewables, with ment in Poland are limited due to Poland's
authors assume that the energy transition particular emphasis on the utilisation of relatively small hydrological resources.
will lead to the creation of up to 300,000 renewable sources in energy clusters and The authors emphasize the need to use at
jobs within industries specialising in renew- energy cooperatives. According to the least these limited opportunities. Currently,
able energy sources, nuclear power, elec- plans, by 2040 approximately half of the there exist pumped storage power plants,
tromobility or grid infrastructure. The coal- electricity supply is to come from renew- which are important for balancing the
rich regions, which are likely to be most able energy sources. To this end, power National Power System, and run-of-river
affected by this new strategy, are to receive grids and energy storage facilities shall also power plants, whose operation is, however,
support of up to PLN 60 billion (ca. 12,8 be developed. difficult to regulate. Nonetheless, as the
28 ENERGETYKA WODNA
LAW
authors of the policy point out, it is nec- chase price and a current market energy and the abovementioned investment facil-
essary to look for new possibilities for the prices (FIP). Regardless of the above, we itation may encourage the development of
development of hydropower sector. also notice an upward trend in the conclu- this branch of the power industry.
sion of cPPAs (corporate power purchase
An opportunity for this sector is seen in the agreements), where we can also see an
participation of small hydropower plants opportunity for hydropower in the future.
in the FIT (feed-in-tariff) and FIP (feed- On the one hand, these agreements allow
in-premium) systems, which provides consumers to maintain relatively fixed
incentives for their erection. These pro- energy costs, and on the other hand, they
grammes in Poland were essentially cre- guarantee the producers a market at rel-
ated as a dedicated support system for atively fixed, and therefore easy to calcu-
hydropower and biogas plants –the sup- late prices, allowing them to cover operat-
Bartosz Piątek
port from these programmes is provided ing costs and make profits, which is in fact Legal counsel, leader of the regulatory and energy
at a predeclared rate, and at the same also an investment incentive. advisory team at PwC Legal
time it does not accommodate any pen-
alties for not producing the declared It is worth noting that according to
amount of electricity. On the other hand, PEP2040, there are nearly 13.5 thousand
the mechanisms are flexible and grant damming facilities in Poland that can be
the ability to sell energy at a current mar- used for energy purposes – which means
ket prices rather than at a fixed price (FIT) that there is still a large potential to, e.g.:
or by providing a coverage for the neg- utilise structures that are part of the flood Krzysztof Szyszko
ative balance between a declared pur- prevention infrastructure to such an end – Legal counsel at PwC Legal
GDAŃSK DIVISION
Mikołaja Reja 27 Str., PL 80-870 Gdańsk; phone: +48 58 34 98 200; fax: +48 58 34 17 685; e-mail: [email protected]
The Institute of Power Engineering is equipped with laboratories for testing new
and modernized turbine components and control systems. The Institute also
performs expertise and tests of turbine governors regarding the degree of wear
and scope of the required modernization.
PROJECTS
Photo 1. View of the lower structure of the hydropower turbine chamber from the tailwater side
L
ake Sromowieckie, the lower reser- jec River. It holds 232 million m3 of water, Power Plant of 5.4-29.4 m3/s.
voir of the Niedzica Pumped Storage over an area of nearly 1,226 hectares
Hydropower Plant, is located in an and its depth reaches up to 50 meters in Energy utilisation of all the water
exceptionally beautiful area. Surrounded some places. The power plant was finally Nature, although beautiful, does not
by the peaks of the Pieniny, together with commissioned in 1997, and two Deri- always give us what we require - and we
the upper reservoir of Niedzica Pumped az-type reversible turbines, with a capac- require a power plant to work 24 hours
Storage Plant - Lake Czorsztyńskie, it is ity of 46.375 MW each (44.5 MW of power a day, 365 days a year. For this however,
a holiday destination for many people in pumping mode), are responsible for we need a sufficient amount of water with
longing for relaxation among nature. It is energy production and accumulation, a very steady flow. But since we cannot
also an example of exceptional utilisation with water supplied by two 7-meter-di- force mother nature to provide us with
of the hydrological potential of the Duna- ameter adits hollowed in the rock. The that, we should carefully consider the utili-
jec River, whose waters are used to pro- facility currently operates mainly in tur- sation of what we already have, and there
duce electricity in two independent hydro- bine mode due to economic issues, which is a huge unexploited potential available,
electric power plants: are conditioned by current legislation and in the form of a constant environmental
1. Niedzica Pumped Storage Plant, which regulations. flow of 4 m3/s. So why should we not take
takes advantage of the difference in advantage of such an opportunity?
height between the Lake Czorsztyńskie Sromowce Wyżne run-of-river power plant
and Sromowieckie; Below the Niedzica Pumped Storage Specialists in the service of climate
2. Sromowce Wyżne Hydropower Plant, Plant lies Sromowce Lake with an area protection
which utilises the height gradient of 88 hectares and a capacity of 7.5 mil- Representatives of Hydropowerplant Com-
between Lake Sromowieckie and the lion m3. It serves as an equalization reser- plex Niedzica, in cooperation with the
Dunajec River, which flows further voir for Niedzica Pumped Storage Plant engineers of Enerko Energy Sp. z o.o.,
downstream. and as a water reservoir for the Sromowce which specializes in the implementation
Wyżne run-of-river power plant, using the of comprehensive solutions for the hydro-
Niedzica hydropower plant equalized water outflow from the lake power industry, decided to take advan-
Plans to establish the Niedzica Pumped into the Dunajec River. The power plant tage of this untapped flow. Due to profes-
Storage Plant date back to the early 20th is located on the left bank of the Dunajec sional cooperation, it was possible to build
century. It was one of the elements of River below the dam and weir of the reser- a new section of the power plant, named
the construction of water reservoirs on voir. The water supply to the power plant Sromowce V, in which a 0.325 MW Kaplan
the flood-prone Carpathian tributaries of is via four reinforced concrete channels turbine manufactured by Voith Hydro was
the Vistula River. Czorsztyńskie Lake, cre- fed by an intake located at the left abut- installed. Enerko Energy as a general con-
ated as a result of its construction, was ment of the weir. Four Flygt hydrosets with tractor for the investment, carried it out in
intended to reduce flood accumulations an installed capacity of 0.52 MW each are a "design and build" formula. The special-
and increase minimum flows in the Duna- responsible for energy production. Two of ists faced a number of challenges, which
30 ENERGETYKA WODNA
PROJECTS
Photo 2. Left: preparation for installation of the water turbine; Right: view of the SHP facility put into operation
they had to resolve to ensure that the • construction of power connection to the a gearbox, and the generator itself was
facility operated properly – and in har- existing infrastructure, connected directly to the turbine shaft.
mony with the nature. • reconstruction of the telecommunica- Both the hub and the adjustable rotor
tions installation, blades are made of stainless steel, and
Comprehensive approach to • construction of a drainage system for the blade adjustment is carried out using
the investment the hydroset chamber, a hydraulic actuator passing through the
The construction of the Sromowce V Small • construction of ventilation system inside hollow shaft of the turbine and the gen-
Hydropower Plant at the existing Sromowce the hydroset chamber, erator. The position of the blades is deter-
Wyżne dam was not only an engineering • construction of the heating system, mined by an inductive position transducer.
challenge, but also a formal one. In order • training of the investor’s personnel, The rotor blade chamber of the turbine is
for the investment to come to fruition, the • carrying out commissioning of the also made of stainless steel and in its part
engineers of Enerko Energy had to develop equipment, it is shaped spherically to achieve a con-
a complete, multi-discipline general, as well • carrying out final tests, stant gap at every possible blade position.
as detailed design documentation, con- • servicing of the installation and its con- The remainder of the cone-shaped hous-
currently with obtaining all the adminis- stituent equipment during the period ing is made as a welded structure with
trative permits required by law, allowing for defect notification, and then during mounting flanges for connection to the
for the construction and commissioning of the warranty period, as well as after war- suction pipe elbow. To ensure easy main-
the powerplant itself, or the adjustment of ranty’s conclusion as part of post-war- tenance and inspection operations, the
the water intake and the refurbishment of ranty service. rotor chamber is made in two-piece form.
the plant’s inlet channel. The fact that the The turbine actuation system is equipped
Dunajec River is a border river did not make In order to reduce the cost of the invest- with 16 directional vanes, which are con-
things any easier, and international agree- ment, and thus accelerate the return on nected by actuation levers to the adjust-
ments, at the level of relevant ministries the investment, an unused reinforced con- ment ring. Every second lever is flexible to
and commissions, had to be undertaken as crete water supply channel to the planned, protect the system in case a large compo-
a part of the necessary arrangements. Once but never realized, fish stocking centre was nent gets stuck during vane closing proce-
all the formalities were completed, the con- used to supply the turbine with water. To dure. The position of the directional vanes
struction and installation work began, which this end, it was reprofiled and upgraded, position is monitored by the facility's
included, in particular: and all the necessary equipment was
• adjustment of the water intake and installed – namely main and emergency
renovation of the inlet channel of the gates and inlet trash rack. In addition, the Technical parameters of
Sromowce V Small Hydropower Plant, channel has been coated with epoxy resins Sromowce V SHP
• reconstruction of the existing overflow for protection, also to the effect of reduc- • Turbine type: Horizontal S type
chamber, ing the roughness of its walls, allowing for Kaplan turbine
• construction of a reinforced concrete a significant decrease in the hydraulic lin- • Gross head: 5–10 m
turbine chamber and an outlet chamber, ear energy loss of flowing water.
• Rated flow rate: 4 m3/s
• delivery and installation of the turbine
(min. 0.8 m3/s)
and generator together with appropri- The interior is important
ate mechanical and electrical equipment, At the heart of the powerplant, there is • Rated turbine efficiency: 91%
• construction of the facility's high and a Kaplan turbine and a three-phase syn- • Generator type: synchronous
low current electrical systems, chronous generator hydroset. The hydro- • Nominal power: 325 kW
• construction of the main electrical distri- set is installed in a horizontal arrange-
• Generator efficiency: 96%
bution system, ment, connected to a suction pipe that
• construction of generator power output exits into the outlet chamber. To maxi- • Number of operating hours per
installation, mize the efficiency of the system, the gen- year: 8640 h (24 h x 360 days)
• construction of the building's own con- erator's speed was matched to that of • Operating voltage: 0.4 kV
sumption installation, the turbine, thus eliminating the need for
E W 2/2022 (42) 31
PROJECTS / The hidden potential of the Dunajec River
Photo 3. Key elements of the SHP equipment: water turbine, hydraulic power pack, electrical cabinets/turbine automation, synchronous generator
automation. To ensure the certainty of the This is a very important function from the There is often untapped potential available
vane closure, the procedure is triggered by point of view of the entire power transmis- in other facilities of this kind, which, after
a counterweight, while a hydraulic actua- sion system, because in the event of fail- a careful analysis, can be developed for
tor is used to open and adjust it. The tur- ure of large power units, a facility such electricity generation. Enerko Energy Sp.
bine's main bearing assembly is a set of as Sromowce V SHP, in cooperation with z o.o. specializes in providing comprehen-
oil-lubricated roller bearings that trans- Niedzica Pumped Storage Plant, will be sive services for hydropower projects and
mit radial and axial shaft forces, and each able to assist in their restart and recon- offers support at every stage of coopera-
bearing is equipped with a PT100 temper- nection to the power transmission system. tion. Each hydropower project is unique
ature sensor, a vibration sensor and an oil Attempts to restart the power system have and requires an individual approach from
level control system that monitors oil lev- already been made several times, utilising the contractors. At every stage of our
els in the bearings and informs the opera- Skawina and Jaworzno power plants. The involvement – i.e. in design, construc-
tor when it is below the level necessary for first of these attempts has been made in tion, engineering or even during consulta-
safe operation. The bearing assemblies are 1996. The trials were successful and showed tion procedures, we use modern tools and
equipped with a cooling system (water/oil that the power plants' generating units are solutions. Our priority is to ensure maxi-
heat exchanger) located inside the oil sump. capable of transitioning to island opera- mum profitability of the investment for our
tion under the various conditions of power clients throughout the entire life of the
The power plant will operate in auto- imbalance encountered prior to separation. installation, from the analysis and consul-
matic mode, transmitting information to The plants were also capable of maintain- tation phase to the long-term operation of
a SCADA master visualization system, and ing themselves in operation during such an the facility. Therefore, we build individual
its operation will be limited only to peri- event, even when there were load changes teams, employ professional subcontrac-
odic inspection and maintenance. The occurring on the island, on condition that tors, and our experience, knowledge and
Sromowce V SHP is designed to sustain frequency and voltage are kept within the reliability allows us to implement even the
continuous operation, 24 hours a day, 360 limits of acceptable deviations. most complex of the projects.
days a year.
Was it worth it?
On-grid or off-grid operation The Sromowce V Hydropower Plant,
To manage and control the operation of implemented within an existing power
the facility, advanced supervision, control plant and damming, can serve as a good
and automation systems have been used, example of responsible asset manage-
which, in addition to optimizing the oper- ment and maximum use of the availa- Piotr Włodarski
ation of the hydropower plant, are able ble hydropower potential in the vicin- Development Department
Enerko Energy Sp. z o. o.
to ensure the proper parameters of the ity of those powerplants that are already
grid when they are islanded – and even in operation. The facility in Sromowce Photos come from the archive of
restart the powerplant after a blackout. Wyżne is not an exception in this case. Enerko Energy Sp. z o.o.
32 ENERGETYKA WODNA
PROJECTS
Fig.1. View from the tailwater side on the open section of the fish pass and the outlet section
T
he planned Kąty-Myscowa dam res- AMSL, minimum damming level MinPP at overflow spillways, was chosen as the most
ervoir is located in the Low Beskids 333.0 m AMSL. These differences result from favourable fish migration system.
(Jasło District, Podkarpackie Voivode- the assumed task of providing alimony to
ship, Poland). It is impounded by an the towns below in the periods of low flows Characteristics of technical
earthfill dam located at 141+400 km of and from the flood protection function. slot fish passes
the Wisłoka River at the biggest narrow- The slot pass consists of a concrete canal
ing of the river’s valley at the Kąty village. Dam structure with transverse partition walls. There is
The catchment area of the river up to the The designed dam, with a body height of a variation of the classic pool pass whereby
cross-section of the dam of the future res- 44.26 m, will be used for permanent dam- the cross-walls are notched by verti-
ervoir is 297 km2, collecting mainly water ming of water in order to provide water to cal slots extending over the entire height
from the Magura Range and the Beskid cities and settlements along the Wisłoka of the crosswall, which has one or two
Dukielski Mountains. The springs of the Valley and to protect them against flood- slots depending on the size of the water-
E W 2/2022 (42) 33
PROJECTS / Fish ladder design in terms of a large difference in water level
34 ENERGETYKA WODNA
PROJECTS
Fig. 6. The fish pass cross-sections. 1 - fish entrance section; 2 - fish pass in the gallery crossing the dam; 3 - open section.
E W 2/2022 (42) 35
PROJECTS / Fish ladder design in terms of a large difference in water level
The open section led by serpentines on the of the fish pass outflow and will effectively Using a slot fish pass as a basic solution
left side of the spillway will end at the sta- attract fish. The attracting water flows to to ensure fish migration results from the
bilizing step. The step will serve as a barrier the outlet pool through a surface over- many advantages of this type of structure
to the natural migration of the river fauna. flow equipped with a flap and a mesh. At in relation to other types of technical fish
It creates conditions enabling the migrat- the outlet of the pool, there will be three pass. It allows us to guarantee the possi-
ing fauna to find their way into the artifi- discharge openings with barrage closures bility of migration upstream, both for spe-
cial pool of the fish pass in order to over- enabling the regulation of the speed of cies with less swimming skills and for small
come the main obstacle, i.e., the dam of water flowing out of the fish pass. fish. Due to the vertical slots, the bottom
almost 40 meters. of the structure is less susceptible to silt-
During the fish pass operation in the ing than the traditionally designed pool
On the left abutment of the step, there are pumping mode, when the water level in pass. The designed fish pass can function
three structures for draining water during the reservoir does not allow the fish to in a wide range of flows, variable up and
normal operation. These are: a flushing use the inlet windows to the fish pass, the low water levels.
channel, hydroelectric power station, and downward migration will be additionally
a fish pass. All these structures are involved secured with a device for catching fish on Wiesław Wiśniewolski
in carrying out an equalized flow of about a floating pontoon. The caught fish will be Support expert in river fisheries
The Stanislaw Sakowicz Inland Fisheries Institute
2.4 m3/s. The flushing canal will operate transported and released to the fish pass.
Igor Suslo
sporadically and remove sediments in front Design engineer
of the hydroelectric power station and as Conclusions Hydroinvest Sp. z o.o.
a backup discharge during the shutdown The proposed fish pass solves extremely Maciej Pilecki
period of the facility. difficult technical conditions: the dif- Design engineer
Hydroinvest Sp. z o.o.
ference between the upstream and the
Marek Mazurkiewicz
The outlets from these three structures are downstream water level of the dam is Support expert in hydro engineering
led to the outlet basin of the step in the 40.40 meters, which must be overcome Hydroinvest Sp. z o.o.
sequence from the weir: the flushing canal, by the fauna: the water level difference in
hydroelectric power station, the fish pass. the reservoir is 17.7 m. The problem was
The outlets from the canal and the power solved by providing the two-stage opera-
station should lead to the abutment of the tion of the fish pass, i.e. the gravity feed
tread, similar to the outlet from the fish water supply and the forced water feed References:
pass. It is inclined from the shoreline by through pumping. The proposed design 1. FAO/DVWK, “Fish passes – Design, dimensions and
30°, and in front of it there is a slipway that parameters of the fish pass and its planned monitoring”, Rome, FAO. 2002. 119p.
allows a gentle discharge of water from expenditure provide appropriate migra- 2. Hydroinvest Ltd, „Opracowanie aktualizacji koncep-
cji rozwiązań technicznych budowy zbiornika Kąty -
the fish pass to the bottom of the river. If tion conditions for species making up the Myscowa na rz. Wisłoce”. Warsaw. 2021.
such a solution is used, the water streams Wisłoka fish diversity. This is indicated by 3. Suslo I., „Projekt konstrukcji przepławki dla ryb ze zbi-
from the fish pass and the power station the calculated maximum flow velocities ornika Kąty-Myscowa”. Warsaw University of Technol-
will move in parallel. The fish pass outlet is occuring in the slots V = 1.47 m/s (perm. V ogy. Warsaw. 2021.
additionally supplied with the water taken = 1.5 m/s) and the values of the volumetric
from the pipeline in front of the turbine. power dissipation E = 66.94 W/m3 (perm. E Graphics come from the archive of
This inflow will increase the attractiveness = 100 W/m3). Hydroinvest Sp. z o.o.
36 ENERGETYKA WODNA
PROJECTS / ADVERTORIAL
R
enewable energy sources are a key storage systems. Power Plant to react to sudden changes
part of the energy transition, ena- in solar energy production. In recent
bling decarbonisation and an effec- The development activities covered the months, further hydroelectric power
tive shift away from carbon technologies. Lubachów water power plant (1.2 MW) plants owned by TAURON Ekoenergia
Electricity generation from wind and solar and a battery storage system (0.5 MW). sp. z o.o. have been incorporated into
is clean, environmentally friendly and eco- The success of the development activities the system. The Choszczno I photovoltaic
nomically viable. Over the last few years, allowed the start of the commercialisa- farm has been integrated into the Virtual
intensive development of the RES sec- tion phase. 6 hydroelectric power plants Power Plant system. In the near future, it
tor can be observed as one of the pillars (80 MW), 6 photovoltaic farms (5 MW) is planned to integrate the platform with
of the desired climate neutrality of many and 9 wind farms (314 MW) are currently the Company's newest photovoltaic farm,
European countries. Forecasting wind integrated into the Virtual Power Plant the 8 MWp Choszczno II farm, commis-
power and solar output is a difficult task platform. sioned this year. All of the Company's
with a high level of uncertainty. Especially wind generators will be switched on by
considering a distant time horizon. The Built from scratch, the customised solu- the end of 2022. The total capacity of
level of generation from RES sources is tion takes into account the specifics of the the sources operating within the Virtual
determined by natural weather phenom- national energy market and the distribu- Power Plant platform is 400 MW.
ena and is therefore volatile. tion network. The virtual power plant plat-
form that was created manages, optimises, The project also involves cooperation with
Understanding the challenges of the RES monitors and remotely controls the gen- individual investors. Each owner of a RES
sector, TAURON Ekoenergia has imple- eration sources and energy storage units. source can be connected to the Virtual
mented an innovative research and devel- The 0.5 MW energy storage system with Power Plant system, which will manage
opment project to develop a platform to a capacity of 0.5 MWh was built using the electricity generated by this source.
aggregate the generation and regulation modern lithium-ion batteries. The stor- This enables investors to achieve addi-
potential of distributed renewable energy age system has been in use since 2019. tional benefits in the form of increased
sources and energy storage systems and The process of forecasting electricity pro- revenues resulting from the use of their
selected categories of controllable loads. duction in the Virtual Power Plant is based generation and regulation capacities to
The outcome of the project, which was on price forecasts in the electricity mar- provide additional services to other mar-
successfully completed in 2021, was the kets, production costs for a given system, ket participants and customers associated
development and implementation of weather forecasts, as well as taking into with the platform.
innovative tools and solutions enabling consideration the need for maintenance
the management of the operation of gen- work at a particular location.
eration sources, energy storage facilities
and controllable electricity consumers for The solution developed and implemented Przemysław Janik
Expert on energy storage systems
the needs of energy market participants, by TAURON Ekoenergia Sp. z o.o. con- Office for Distributed Energy and R&D
primarily participants in the Balancing sists of three main components: Central Tauron Ekoenergia sp. z o.o.
E W 2/2022 (42) 37
PROJECTS
I
n 2000, a 9.5 kilometer long 15 kV cable to be awarded a grant. of the appropriate water level in the res-
was laid at the bottom of the pictur- ervoir. Owing to favourable weather con-
esque Czorsztyn Lake. The route ran The planned investment result are medium ditions and efficient work of the contrac-
from the frontal dam in Niedzica to the voltage (15 kV) cable lines of more than tor (MANSTEL Bednarczyk, Słowik, Wiącek
side dam in the village of Frydman with 11.3 km in length, and a fibre optic line sp. j.), this extremely complicated and diffi-
the cable coming ashore at the villages of (laid along the medium voltage line at cult stage has been carried out successfully.
Kluszkowce and Maniowy. the bottom of the Czorsztyn Reservoir) The platforms with drums of cables weigh-
and three container transformer stations ing a total of about 40 tons were placed
After 18 years of operation, it became located on the banks of the lake. We also on the surface of the lake. They were then
apparent that due to the intensive devel- carried out adaptation and reconstruc- hooked up to a tugboat and the unwind-
opment of the RES sources around the tion of the existing electrical infrastructure ing of the cables of the first section could
Czorsztyn Reservoir, there is a need to at Frydman and Dębno transformer sta- begin. In total, cables were laid along
expand the main grid system owned by tions inside pumping station facilities, and a route of more than 11 kilometres, which
ZEW Niedzica SA. The total power of new the modernization of the RPW15 switch- had previously been designated by survey-
renewables is more than a dozen MW of
installed capacity. In addition, an impor-
tant premise was that after fault-free oper-
ation of the cable for almost 20 years, the
occurrence of a severe failure caused by
damage to the cable’s underwater sec-
tion could not be ruled out. For these rea-
sons, ZEW Niedzica SA began to consider
the construction of a second cable line
so as to connect it to the existing system.
Due to the large investment expenditures
and the need to pass these expenditures
on to customers in the form distribution
tariff, the planned investment was post-
poned until favourable circumstances
arose. Such a moment came in 2018, when
the chance to start the investment process
appeared in the form of a grant compe-
tition announced by the Regional Opera-
tional Program of the Malopolska Region Fig. 1. Coverage of the distribution network of ZEW Niedzica SA
38 ENERGETYKA WODNA
PROJECTS
25
accompanied by the fibre optic cable, cre- configuration, i.e. such switching of the archive of ZEW Niedzica SA
T
he results obtained were compared Material and methods tivity. The general form of the formula is
with the results of laboratory tests The tests of hydraulic conductivity were expressed as:
carried out on soil samples with the carried out on samples of coarse-grained k
same porosity coefficients but different (non-cohesive) soils from the Warsaw area.
density index. In this paper an empirical The sampled soils belong genetically to where:
formula is proposed to correct the coarse- interglacial and fluvioglacial formations of k – hydraulic conductivity [cm/s; m/s],
grained soil permeability coefficient on the Warta or Odra glaciation. β – constant depending on characteristics
the basis of grain-size distribution param- of the porous medium,
eters in relation to compaction. In order to determine the hydraulic con- ϑ(n) – porosity function,
ductivity on the basis of empirical for- de – effective grain diameter [cm; mm],
The hydraulic conductivity (k) is a param- mulas the particle size distribution was g – the gravitational constant
eter that defines the ability of a soil determined according to PKN-CEN ISO/ [cm/s²; m/s²],
medium to allow water to flow through TS 17892-4:2008 [12]. Based on the parti- ν – kinematic viscosity, , where:
it. According to Darcy's linear law it cle size curve the parameters characteris- ρ – the temperature-dependent water
expresses the relationship between ing the particle size were determined, i.e.: density [g/dm3], μ – the temperature-de-
hydraulic gradient and water filtra- d₁₀, d₁₇, d₂₀, d₅₀, d₆₀ (substitute diameters in pendent water density [g/cm·s].
tion rate [8],[4]. There are many differ- mm corresponding to weight % of frac-
ent methods to determine the filtration tions passing through the sieves) and the In order to assess the suitability of the
coefficient, including field methods such type of soil. The soil type was determined selected empirical formulas for the deter-
as well pumping test, tracer tests, labora- in accordance with PN-B-0248:1986[10] mination of the hydraulic conductivity, cal-
tory methods and calculations based on and PN-EN ISO 14688-2:2019[13]. culations of this parameter were carried
empirical formulas. Based on the test results obtained, the out using the 12 formulas in Table 2.
soils were divided into 4 groups:
Estimation of aquifer properties by field A. Medium sand: In order to analyse the results obtained on
methods is accurate but costly and MSa (Ps): A1 – Cu = 2 oraz A2 – Cu = 3 the basis of empirical formulas, laboratory
prone to possible errors due to insuffi-
Source: Own study
cient knowledge of aquifer geometry and
hydraulic boundaries. Laboratory tests Soil type acc. to Coefficient Particle size distribution [mm]
Soil
allow an accurate description of the test type
of uniformity
PN-B-0248 PN-EN ISO (CU) [-]
boundary conditions, but are also lim- [10] 14688-2 [13]
d₁₀ d₁₇ d₂₀ d₅₀ d₆₀
ited by the ability to obtain representative
samples and the time-consuming nature A₁ Ps MSa 2 0.19 0.26 0.27 0.39 0.43
of the test procedure. Estimation of filtra-
tion properties based on empirical formu-
A₂ Ps MSa 3 0.12 0.15 0.16 0.28 0.33
las based on grain size distribution charac-
teristics is used generally to overcome the
above-mentioned problems, but it should B Pr CSa 5 0.19 0.27 0.31 0.78 0.93
be clearly emphasised that they have
a limited scope of application and lim-
ited accuracy of determination. In order C Po grCSa 2 0.49 0.56 0.59 0.88 0.98
40 ENERGETYKA WODNA
KNOWLEDGE
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E W 2/2022 (42) 41
KNOWLEDGE / Empirical estimation of the coarse soil hydraulic conductivity in practice
k
Design source: Scope of application:
β ϑ(n)
Terzaghi (1925)
Ct – the sorting factor is
podstawie Vukovic
between: Use for coarse-grained sand.
and Soro [18] and
Devlin [3] 6.1×10–3 < Ct < 10.7×10–3
Beyer (1964) The formula is used for the effective grain size
acc. to Vukovic
1 0.06 mm < d10 < 0.6 mm and coefficient of
and Soro [18]
uniformity CU ≤ 20
Sauerbrei (1932) The formula is used for the effective grain size
[15] acc. to Vuko- 3.75 ×10 –3
vic and Soro [18]
17
d 17 < 0.05 cm
Tab. 2. Summary of the formulas used to calculate the hydraulic conductivity, continued on next page
42 ENERGETYKA WODNA
KNOWLEDGE
k
Design source: Scope of application:
β ϑ(n)
Krumbein and
Monk (1942) acc.
to Vukovic and 7.501 × 10–6
Soro [18] and
Devlin [3]
method:
Soil type
and Monk
Krumbein
Sauerbrei
Terzaghi
Zamarin
Constant
Chapuis
Slichter
Kozeny
Hazen
Alyamani
Beyer
USBR
Barr
and Sen
head
[14]
bzg
0.33 2.81E-04 7.20E-04 - 3.37E-04 1.20E-04 - - 1.74E-04 8.86E-05 3.27E-04 1.46E-04 3.34E-04 1.00E-04
(ID=0.90)
zg
0.35 3.14E-04 8.74E-05 - 3.37E-04 1.52E-04 - - 1.74E-04 1.12E-04 3.27E-04 1.91E-04 3.34E-04 1.16E-04
(ID=0.70)
A1
szg
0.38 3.64E-04 1.14E-04 - 3.37E-04 2.13E-04 - - 1.74E-04 1.58E-04 3.27E-04 2.90E-04 3.34E-04 1.89E-04
(ID=0.50)
ln
0.40 3.97E-04 1.35E-04 - 3.37E-04 2.66E-04 - - 1.74E-04 1.97E-04 3.27E-04 3.91E-04 3.34E-04 2.18E-04
(ID=0.30)
bzg
0.33 1.15E-04 2.96E-05 4.96E-05 1.33E-04 4.02E-05 5.56E-05 1.32E-04 5.27E-05 3.64E-05 1.16E-04 4.71E-05 1.33E-04 1.04E-04
(ID=0.90)
zg
0.36 1.36E-04 3.94E-05 6.77E-05 1.33E-04 5.71E-05 1.81E-04 1.66E-04 5.27E-05 5.18E-05 1.16E-04 7.42E-05 1.33E-04 1.25E-04
(ID=0.70)
A2
szg
0.38 1.49E-04 4.70E-05 8.17E-05 1.33E-04 7.16E-05 9.92E-05 1.92E-04 5.27E-05 6.49E-05 1.16E-04 1.02E-04 1.33E-04 1.47E-04
(ID=0.50)
ln
0.41 1.70E-04 6.04E-05 1.06E-04 1.33E-04 9.93E-05 1.38E-04 2.33E-04 5.27E-05 9.00E-05 1.16E-04 1.70E-04 1.33E-04 1.59E-04
(ID=0.30)
bzg
0.31 2.45E-04 5.81E-05 9.51E-05 2.85E-04 1.01E-04 6.76E-04 5.66E-04 2.48E-04 6.86E-05 5.12E-05 1.12E-04 5.12E-04 1.05E-04
(ID=0.90)
zg
0.34 2.95E-04 7.86E-05 1.33E-04 2.85E-04 1.46E-04 9.75E-04 8.32E-04 2.48E-04 1.21E-04 5.12E-05 2.08E-04 5.12E-04 4.20E-04
(ID=0.70)
B
szg
0.37 3.44E-04 1.04E-04 1.80E-04 2.85E-04 2.06E-04 1.38E-03 9.13E-04 2.48E-04 1.40E-04 5.12E-05 2.49E-04 5.12E-04 9.58E-04
(ID=0.50)
ln
0.39 3.76E-04 1.23E-04 2.15E-04 2.85E-04 2.57E-04 1.72E-03 1.05E-03 2.48E-04 1.75E-04 5.12E-05 3.33E-04 5.12E-04 2.85E-04
(ID=0.30)
bzg
0.31 1.64E-03 3.88E-04 6.35E-04 2.27E-03 - 9.60E-04 1.50E-03 1.09E-03 4.59E-04 2.46E-03 1.35E-03 1.48E-03 3.41E-03
(ID=0.90)
zg
0.33 1.86E-03 4.77E-04 8.00E-04 2.27E-03 - 1.23E-03 1.78E-03 1.09E-03 5.87E-04 2.46E-03 1.62E-03 1.48E-03 6.38E-03
(ID=0.70)
C
szg
0.36 2.19E-03 6.34E-04 1.09E-03 2.27E-03 - 1.75E-03 2.25E-03 1.09E-03 8.35E-04 2.46E-03 2.17E-03 1.48E-03 9.96E-03
(ID=0.50)
ln
0.38 2.41E-03 7.58E-04 1.32E-03 2.27E-03 - 2.19E-03 2.59E-03 1.09E-03 1.05E-03 2.46E-03 2.67E-03 1.48E-03 9.29E-03
(ID=0.30)
bzg
0.47 1.52E-04 6.81E-05 - 9.69E-05 1.33E-04 - - 3.59E-05 1.21E-04 8.83E-05 3.85E-04 8.16E-05 1.06E-05
(ID=0.90)
zg
0.55 1.91E-04 1.14E-04 - 9.69E-05 2.96E-04 - - 3.59E-05 2.69E-04 8.83E-05 2.56E-03 8.16E-05 1.43E-05
(ID=0.70)
D szg
0.63 2.30E-04 1.78E-04 - 9.69E-05 6.57E-04 - - 3.59E-05 5.98E-04 8.83E-05 2.83E-02 8.16E-05 1.63E-05
(ID=0.50)
ln
0.71 2.69E-04 2.64E-04 - 9.69E-05 1.53E-03 - - 3.59E-05 1.39E-03 8.83E-05 7.10E-01 8.16E-05 1.98E-05
(ID=0.30)
Table 3. Summary of results of the hydraulic conductivity determination for selected soil types
E W 2/2022 (42) 43
KNOWLEDGE / Empirical estimation of the coarse soil hydraulic conductivity in practice
A2 0.94
Test results and discussion
The obtained results of the hydraulic con-
ductivity by the laboratory method were
compared with the values calculated on
the basis of empirical formulas (selected
B 1.44 for applicability) for soils characterised by
the four above mentioned density index
and for the average values of effective
diameter equivalents.
44 ENERGETYKA WODNA
KNOWLEDGE
ing into account the type of soil) the best performed on soil samples with the same
tration properties of soils include grain size obtained from the Hazen formula allow for head of filtration in accordance with PKN-CEN
ISO/TS 17892-11 and ASTM D2434
distribution described by the authorita- more accurate estimation of this parameter,
tive diameter di, followed by porosity n and close to the values from direct tests. determination of the filtration coefficient
coefficient of uniformity (CU). These param- should be taken into account. Limitations
eters are most often taken into account It should be remembered that the empiri- of these tests and design based only on
in the assessment of the filter proper- cal formulas give only approximate values the grain size distribution may have meas-
ties of a soil medium [2]. As it was shown of the water permeability coefficient, as urable effects in the form of defects and
in the conducted analyses, the necessity to they do not include all the factors deter- errors resulting from underestimation of
take into account the state of soil (which is mining the actual flow in the subsoil under this parameter.
a parameter related to the described fac- in situ conditions [6]. It should be stressed
tors) influences the improvement of the that the formulas have certain limitations
description of the phenomenon of filtration and ranges of applicability, which should
expressed by the hydraulic conductivity. be strictly observed. In practice, at the
stage of construction cost planning, the BEng. Krystyna Jaśkiewicz
phD, DSc Tomasz Godlewski, Assoc Prof.
The obtained calculation results were com- necessity to implement more labour-in- Building Structures, Geotechnics and Concrete
pared with the results of laboratory tests tensive (more expensive) methods of direct Department, Building Research Institute, Warsaw
Literature:
1. Białas Z., Kleczkowski A. S. (1970). O przydatności 8. Myślińska, E. (1998). Laboratoryjne badania gruntów. gradiencie hydraulicznym (PKN-CEN ISO/TS 17892-
niektórych wzorów empirycznych dla określenia Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. 11: 2019-05) Warszawa: Polski Komitet Normal-
współczynnika filtracji k. Archiwum Hydrotechniki 9. Parylak, K., Zięba, Z., Bułdys, A. & Witek, K. (2013). izacyjny.
TOM XVII, Zeszyt 3, s.405–417. Weryfikacja wyznaczania współczynnika filtracji 15. Sauerbrey, I.I., 1932. On the Problem and Determi-
2. Dąbska A. (2021) Odporność filtracyjna pias- gruntów niespoistych za pomocą wzorów empiry- nation of the Permeability Coefficient. Proceedings
ków. Warszawa: Oficyna wydawnicza Politechniki cznych w ujęciu ich mikrostruktury. Acta Sci. Pol. VNIIG, No. 3–5. (In. Russian.)
Warszawskiej Architectura, 12 (2), 43–51 16. Shen, C., Zhu, J. & Gu, W. (2019). Prediction Method
3. Devlin, J. F. (2015). HydrogeoSieveXL: an Excel- 10. Polski Komitet Normalizacyjny [PKN] (1986). for Hydraulic Conductivity considering the Effect of
based tool to estimate hydraulic conductivity from Grunty budowlane. Określenia symbole podział Sizes of Ellipsoid Soil Particles from the Microscopic
grain size analysis. Hydrogeology Journal. doi. i opis gruntów (PN-B-0248:1986). Warszawa: Polski Perspective. Advances in Civil Engineering, 7213094.
org/10.1007/s10040-015-1255-0 Komitet Normalizacyjny. http://doi.org/10.1155/2019/7213094
4. Head, K. & Epps, R. (2011). Manual of soil laboratory 11. Polski Komitet Normalizacyjny [PKN] (1988). 17. Wrzesiński, G. (2020). Permeability coefficient tests
testing. Vol. 2. Permeability, shear strength and com- Grunty budowlane. Badania próbek gruntu (PN-B- in non-cohesive soils. Przegląd Naukowy. Inżynieria
pressibility test. Dunbeath Mill: Whittles Publishing. 04481:1988). Warszawa: Polski Komitet Normal- i Kształtowanie Środowiska – Scientific Review. Engi-
5. Hazen, A. (1892). Some physical properties of sands izacyjny. neering and Environmental Sciences, 29 (1), 72–80.
and gravels, with special reference to their use in 12. Polski Komitet Normalizacyjny [PKN] (2008). Bada- http://doi.org/10.22630/PNIKS.2020.29.1.7
filtration. In 24th Annual Report of the State Board of nia geotechniczne. Badania laboratoryjne gruntów. 18. Vukovic, M. & Soro, A. (1992). Determination of
Health of Massachusetts (pp. 539–556). Boston: State Część 4: Oznaczanie składu granulometrycznego hydraulic conductivity of porous media from grain-
Board of Health of Massachusetts. (PKN-CEN ISO/TS 17892-4:2008). Warszawa: Polski size composition [trans. from Serbo-Croation by
6. Jaśkiewicz K., Godlewski T. (2021). Veryfication of Komitet Normalizacyjny. Dubravka Miladinov]. Littleton, CO: Water Resources
determination of hydraulic conductivity for coarse 13. Polski Komitet Normalizacyjny [PKN] (2019). Badania Publications.
soils by empirical formulas based on the density geotechniczne. Oznaczanie i klasyfikowanie gruntów. 19. Zięba, Z. (2016). Influence of soil particle shape on
index. Acta Sci. Pol. Architectura, 20 (2) 2021, 83-92; Część 2: Zasady klasyfikowania (PN-EN ISO 14688- saturated hydraulic conductivity, Journal of Hydrol-
DOI: 10.22630/ASPA.2021.20.2.17 2:2019). Warszawa: Polski Komitet Normalizacyjny. ogy and Hydromechanics, 65 (1), 80–87. http://doi.
7. Kozeny, J. (1953). Das Wasser im Boden. Grund- 14. Polski Komitet Normalizacyjny [PKN] (2019). Bada- org/10.1515/johh-2016-0054\
wasserbewegung. In J. Kozeny (Ed.), Hydraulik (pp. nia geotechniczne – Badania laboratoryjne gruntów
380–445). Vienna: Springer. – Część 11: badanie filtracji przy stałym i zmiennym
E W 2/2022 (42) 45
KNOWLEDGE
I
t is beyond any doubt that climate that both have a huge role to play in the file in comparison to other energy sources
change represents the greatest threat clean energy transition, and I welcome the over a full lifecycle. This is before we even
to humanity and the environment. investment that is being injected into their consider the many non-power services
While it has been reassuring to see the growth. However, wind and solar will soon hydropower provides, including water
global consensus come around to recog- reach their limit if we do not also invest in resource management, navigation, irriga-
nise the scale of the challenge, we are sim- a reliable backup for the times when the tion and tourism.
ply not making fast enough progress on weather conditions are not right.
reducing carbon emissions. The challenge we face is that new hydro-
As the world’s largest provider of clean power capacity is not being developed
Upon the launch of the third Intergovern- energy storage, hydropower is uniquely quickly enough to support the rapid
mental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) placed to fulfil this role. It can be ramped growth of variable renewables like wind
report in April 2022, United Nations Secre- up or down at short notice to stabilise the and solar. Factoring in the long lead times
tary-General António Guterres emphasised grid whenever the wind doesn’t blow or and complex legal processes involved,
46 ENERGETYKA WODNA
KNOWLEDGE
hydropower projects often take more than of the world, particularly in Africa and Asia, mate and development goals, and a series
ten years to build. If policymakers do not using the new Hydropower Sustainability of recommendations for policymakers. At
make the critical decisions today to spur Standard certification scheme to ensure it its heart was an assertion that “going for-
new hydropower development, the sit- is developed responsibly. We can also sup- ward, the only acceptable hydropower
uation will get worse: we will either face plement new development by modernis- is sustainable hydropower”. The Decla-
blackouts, or we will need to fall back onto ing our existing stock of hydropower pro- ration – which was presented to global
harmful fossil fuels. jects around the world, and by retrofitting decision makers at COP26 – also featured
hydropower facilities into non-powered a ground-breaking commitment that new
Development is progressing, but we dams. hydropower projects must not be devel-
need to accelerate oped in UNESCO World Heritage Sites,
New intelligence in the last year has shed We can, with hydropower: a public and that a duty of care should be applied
light on the immense scale of hydro- information campaign in designated Protected Areas.
power development needed if we are to The need for sustainable hydropower as an
meet global climate goals. The Interna- enabler for net zero could not be clearer. With hydropower, the technology that we
tional Energy Agency (IEA) warned in its To bring this to the attention of the pub- need to deliver net zero is readily available
2021 Net Zero by 2050 report that global lic and place it firmly on the radar of pol- to us, and we have the knowledge and the
hydropower capacity needs to at least icymakers, IHA has launched a new cam- tools to develop it in a way that brings net
double by mid-century in order to limit paign in 2022 together with a coalition of positive benefits to society and the envi-
the global temperature rise to 1.5°C, while developers, operators, manufacturers and ronment. It is now down to governments
the organisation’s Executive Director Fatih industry associations around the world. around the world to incentivise sustaina-
Birol described hydropower as “the forgot- ble hydropower by including it in their cli-
ten giant of clean electricity” that “needs We can, with hydropower is a public infor- mate change strategies and providing the
to be put squarely back on the energy and mation campaign that highlights the many regulatory and financial frameworks that
climate agenda if countries are serious benefits that hydropower provides to soci- can spur new development.
about meeting their net zero goals”. ety when it is developed responsibly and
sustainably. The first phase of the cam- This must be the goal for COP27 in
Meanwhile, the International Renewable paign has focused on hydropower’s role in November 2022 if we are serious about
Energy Agency (IRENA) echoed these pro- enabling wind and solar, preventing black- phasing down coal and accelerating the
jections in its Global Energy Transforma- outs, providing affordable energy, decar- shift towards renewables.
tion: the REmap Transition Pathway, which bonising industries, and protecting com-
called for a doubling of global hydropower munities from floods and droughts. How to participate
capacity to around 2,600 GW by 2050. We welcome participation in the We can,
Leading public figures that have joined with hydropower campaign from anybody
Describing a “decade of high promise but the campaign to voice messages of sup- who has an interest in sustainable hydro-
ultimately uneven and lacklustre growth”, port include former Prime Minister of Aus- power and its role in achieving climate
IHA President Roger Gill wrote in the last tralia Malcolm Turnbull, former Prime Min- goals. A range of social media graphics
edition of Energetyka Wodna that hydro- ister of New Zealand Helen Clark, explorer are available to download in six languages
power’s capacity growth was just 1.6 per and founder of the Solar Impulse Founda- from the campaign website, hydropower.
cent in 2020, far below the 2.3 per cent tion Bertrand Piccard, Swiss State Secre- org/wecan, and you can share your own
needed to reach the IEA’s net zero path- tary Benoît Revaz, and former Norwegian messages of support using the hashtag
way. The new data that we reveal in the Environment Minister Erik Solheim. #withhydropower.
2022 Hydropower Status Report shows
a slight annual increase in new develop- The road to COP27 Please also certify your projects with the
ment, but we are still falling short of what The launch of the We can, with hydro- Hydropower Sustainability Standard at
is needed. power campaign follows a remarka- www.hydrosustainability.org.
ble year of progress for the sustainable
Approximately 26 GW of new hydropower hydropower community. The 2021 World Finally, your company is welcome to join
capacity came online in 2021, marking Hydropower Congress last September saw the global effort to advance sustainable
a 1.9 percent increase and bringing the two milestone moments. Firstly, the launch hydropower by becoming a member of
global total to 1,360 GW. The geograph- of the Hydropower Sustainability Stand- the International Hydropower Association
ical distribution of development remains ard marked the world's first sustainability at www.hydropower.org.
a problem, however; around 80 per cent of certification and labelling scheme in the
last year’s new installations were in China, renewables sector. We are now rolling out
which has dominated new hydropower in its implementation with the hydropower
the past decade. community around the world.
Ramping up our progress to meet net zero Secondly, the San José Declaration on
targets will require tapping into the tre- Sustainable Hydropower outlined a new
mendous potential that exists across much vision for the sector to contribute to cli- International Hydropower Association
E W 2/2022 (42) 47
ECOLOGY
T
he idea of the fish lift is not new and shaft. The tailwater section should have cations are not required as both flow and
a number of such installations have a length of about 20 m to be effective. The head can be assumed to be constant. The
been built both in Europe and over- advance speed of the compressor screen design data will be in the following ranges:
seas. However, they differ from each other must be coordinated with the "timetable" Q between 0.2 and 2.0 m³/s, H between 4
in several respects. What they all have in of the liftings in the shaft. and 30 m. It is highly unlikely that the sys-
common is the arrangement of a central tem will be suitable for significantly lower
shaft structure in which the fish are lifted. The shaft and its connections heights, as the essential advantage of
Already in the lifting process, however, In the present concept, a vertical, pris- lower costs will no longer be effective. The
there are differences both in the drive and matic shaft represents the core of the sys- necessary equipment such as mechanics,
in terms of what is lifted. Some systems lift tem. This shaft can either be made of rein- gates and turbine will then be too expen-
volumes of water including fish in closed forced concrete or steel and is connected sive. The turbine is always in operation.
containers. Others fill the shaft and let the to the individual headwater or tailwater The path of the water inflow and outflow is
fish swim independently. Some systems via mostly rectangular channels. Rectan- controlled by gates as well. Turbine regu-
work under a slight overpressure – others gular cross-sections are suitable for purely lation is not necessary.
prefer the free water level in the chamber. technical reasons, since both channel con-
nections must be designed to be closable, The distributor
The upstream emptying can also be done and this can best be achieved with a sim- The shaft is filled via a separate filling pipe
in different ways. In some arrangements, ple sliding or rolling gate. that branches off from the inlet pipe in
the lifting takes place above the head- front of the turbine and leads to the bot-
water level and after emptying the tank, The dimensions of the shaft are based on tom of the shaft structure. Just there, the
the fish are flushed into the headwater dimensions that are considered sufficient pipe widens into a distribution system to
via a channel. Other solutions prefer free for vertical slot passes. This implies a size allow the flow to enter the shaft as turbu-
swimming out. dependency on the decisive largest fish lence-free as possible. The distribution sys-
species to be assumed at the respective tem must be adapted to the shaft size and
In the case of the "fish lift", the lifting takes location. The shaft thus has a length of 3x the filling time. The flow is controlled by
place under free water level and without the length and a width of 2x the length of an IDM-controlled valve in the supply line.
the use of external energy. A lattice screen the determining fish species.
is lifted, but not the water volume. In the The operating phases
upstream emptying phase, the fish swim The lattice screen The operation of the system can be divided
freely but mechanically "motivated" into Inside the chamber there is a vertically into four main phases:
the upstream area. movable screen. The screen consists of
a metal frame and a suitable mesh screen Phase 1: Fish swimming-in
Components and operating and is guided laterally in rails. The edges During the swim-in phase, the lattice
phases of the "fishlift” of the screen are designed in such a way screen is in its lowest position and the
The compressor that fish cannot get caught between the downstream gate is open. The compres-
One of the major challenges concern- screen and the shaft wall. The screen is sor has reached its final position on the
ing the function of a fish lift is the tailwa- connected to suitably dimensioned floats shaft and the fish are forced into the shaft.
ter swimming in into the lifting system. An by means of rods, whereby the position Immediately afterwards, the underwa-
important parameter for this is undoubt- and movement of the screen is deter- ter gate closes and the chamber is slowly
edly a certain attraction flow, which the mined exclusively by the water level in the filled with water.
48 ENERGETYKA WODNA
ECOLOGY
Phase 2: Raising the water level water level in the shaft. After reaching the of the system is 0.4 m³/s x 3600 s = 1440
and the fish lowest position and being level with the m³. Filling the shaft four times requires
The supply pipe to the distributor is tailwater, the tailwater gate opens com- a volume of 122.88 m³. In a traditional
opened and the shaft is slowly filled. pletely. vertical slot pass, the generation loss per
Held by the water level, the screen slowly hour is thus about 25 kWh. In the "fish-
moves upwards and takes the fish in the A design example lift", the loss in the same time is only 2.2
shaft with it. When the chamber is full, the The following numerical example serves to kWh, which is 8.7%. Calculated over a year,
screen reaches its highest position and the illustrate the quality of the fishlift system. this results in 219,000 kWh compared to
supply pipe is closed. The following data are assumed: 19,136 kWh.
Q = 400 l/s; H = 8 m; length of the rele-
Phase 3: Fish swimming out vant fish species: 80 cm. The investment for a conventionally con-
When the lattice screen reaches its top This results in the following design sizes: structed slot pass would be approximately
end, the upstream gate opens and the Shaft size: l= 2.4 m, b = 1.6 m 1,000,000 €. The estimated construction
function of the "ejector" is activated. This Variable chamber volume: 30.72 m³ costs for the "fish lift" are around 500,000
forces the fish to leave the chamber. When Speed of lattice screen lifting: 2.22 cm/s €, i.e. 50%.
the "ejector" has reached its final position, Shaft filling time (raising): 6 min
the upstream gate closes. Shaft emptying time (lowering): 6 min Area of application
Duration of the swim-in phase: 1.5 min The "fish lift" is particularly suitable for
Phase 4: Emptying the chamber Duration of the swim-out phase: 1.5 min heads of more than 4 m. This is because
The downstream gate is opened slightly Required flow to fill the chamber: 85.33 l/s the costs for the mechanical equip-
to empty the chamber. The sinking water According to the times mentioned, four ment such as turbine and gates are
level in the shaft brings the “ejector” back cycles/h result. hardly height-dependent. The height
into its initial position and also lets the of the shaft only leads to a subordi-
lattice screen sink again. To ensure even The generation losses are as follows: nate increase in costs, since it is a sim-
emptying, the opening height of the tail- During one hour of operation (4 cycles), ple concrete or steel construction. How-
water gate is controlled according to the the total water demand for the operation ever, the costs for a comparable vertical
Phase I Phase II
7 7
Phase 1: Phase 2:
Turbinenschütz offen - Lockwasser geht durch die Turbine Turbinenschütz offen - Lockwasser geht durch die Turbine
Verdichterschirm bewegt sich in Richtung Schacht Verdichterschirm unmittelbar am Schacht
Fische schwimmen in den Schacht ein Fische befinden sich im Schacht
Füll-Leitung geschlossen Füll-Leitung offen - Wasser strömt in den Schacht
Unterwasserschütz offen Unterwasserschütz geschlossen
Oberwasserschütz geschlossen Phase III Oberwasserschütz geschlossen Phase IV
Wasserspiegel auf Unterwasserniveau Wasserspiegel steigt langsam
7 7
Phase 3: Phase 1:
Turbinenschütz offen - Lockwasser geht durch die Turbine Turbinenschütz offen - Lockwasser geht durch die Turbine
Verdichterschirm am Beginn der Verdichterstrecke Verdichterschirm bewegt sich langsam in Richtung Schacht
Phases
Fische
Fig.1. of theaus
schwimmen fishlift cycle aus
dem Schacht keine Fische im Schacht
Füll-Leitung geschlossen Füll-Leitung geschlossen
Unterwasserschütz geschlossen Unterwasserschütz einen Spalt geöffnet um den Schacht zu entleeren E W 2/2022 (42) 49
Oberwasserschütz offen Oberwasserschütz geschlossen
Wasserspiegel auf Oberwasserniveau Wasserspiegel sinkt langsam
ECOLOGY / The fishlift – bridging the ecological gap including electricity production
main chamber
head water gate
hydraulic prop
filling pipe
tailwater channel
bypass
turbine
floating skeleton
distributor
slot pass increase approximately line- Conclusions a resulting amortisation of the fish by-pass
arly with the head. There is no techni- Mechanically assisted fish migration aids system. No alternative can claim this
cal limit upwards. However, the ques- are currently very much in the ascend- bonus.
tion of whether it makes sense for very ancy, and monitoring already carried
high heads must be raised in principle, out has proven satisfactory functionality
since the upstream habitat at high dam despite the partly very sceptical or even
heights is unlikely to meet the require- negative attitude of the authorities. Now
ments of the fish. The size of the rele- it is a question of proving the acceptance
vant fish species is hardly limited. With of such systems in as many different fish
the exception of the house catfish, which regions as possible and finally declaring
can allegedly grow up to 6 m long, or them to be state of the art.
PhD BEng. Bernhard Pelikan, Prof. ret.
capital catfish and pike, lengths of 1.2 to Legal advisor for hydropower exploitation
1.5 m will probably rarely be exceeded The system presented combines the and flood protection
in European rivers. Consequently, maxi- advantages of such by-pass systems with Lecturer
Carinthia University of Applied Sciences
mum chamber sizes of 3 x 4.5 m will also the benefit of simultaneous energy gener-
rarely be needed. A frequently required ation. This not only leads to a 90% avoid-
dimension will be about 2 x 3 m. ance of generation losses, but also to Graphics come from the author's archive.
50 ENERGETYKA WODNA
ECOLOGY
N
ature has repeatedly said "check,"
mercilessly exposing the sad
truth that we may not go unpun-
ished in our actions and showing us that
despite significant technological progress a b
and tremendous development of knowl-
Photo 1. Examples of the presence of green-blue infrastructure in Rumia: a) a retention reservoir in the
edge – we are often helpless in the face of
Starowiejski Park; b) small retention in a park in Rumia Janowie
the power of natural forces.
areas in the city to provide a wide range of • pollution reduction (including reduc-
Concepts such as "sustainable develop- ecosystem services [2]. These "ecosystem ing dust formation, pollutant adsorp-
ment," "climate change adaptation," and services" are all the functions and bene- tion, etc.);
"energy transition" are nowadays insepa- fits for society and the economy that are • creating an attractive urban space, con-
rable companions of engineering activi- a consequence of the presence of nature ducive to building social relations, rec-
ties and necessary strategies, indicating in a city [3]. Thus, the implementation of reation, sports, promotion of pro-en-
courses of action for repairing and miti- "blue-green infrastructure" is a set of delib- vironmental behaviour, environmental
gating the effects of disturbed harmony in erate, thoughtful and targeted activities education, etc.
the relationship between man and nature. (structural and non-structural) aimed at As a result, the comfort of urban life is sig-
The rediscovery and maintenance of a bal- ensuring the optimal functioning of the nificantly improved.
ance between human needs (including in urban ecosystem.
terms of developing agglomerations) and Practical implementation of the idea of
the environment's capacity for regener- Water and vegetation in the city "blue-green infrastructure" can be car-
ation and its resilience to anthropopres- The advantages of the presence of water ried out in a variety of ways and at a dif-
sure, is now among the strategic and pri- and vegetation in urban areas cannot ferent scales (from the global one – with
ority demands. be overstated. Among the most obvious respect to the entire city or even the
ones, there are: region, to the very local one – related to
The aforementioned attention to sustain- • improving thermal and humidity condi- individual neighborhoods, settlements, or
ability has a very broad context and can tions in cities - reducing diurnal temper- even individual properties). The most com-
be considered at many levels and scales. ature fluctuations, preventing excessive mon measures include the implementa-
In addition to economic, climate-related, heating of surfaces and air, improving tion of solutions to increase water reten-
hydrological and ecological aspects, these thermal comfort (indoors and outdoors), tion (including retention tanks, retention
activities also have a social, psychologi- preventing air drying, thereby weaken- basins, ditches, water squares, green walls
cal and educational dimension. The func- ing the effect of urban heat islands and and green roofs, rain gardens), the use of
tioning of urban agglomerations today is improving the microclimate in cities; solutions using infiltration without reten-
viewed holistically and in the long term - • improving quantitative relations and tion or with retention (such as. permea-
as a kind of natural-technical supersystem, equalizing the water balance in the city ble surfaces, infiltration basins, absorption
rich in multi-layered interactions between - retention of rainwater, prevention of wells, absorption ditches, infiltration boxes,
biotic and abiotic elements. rapid rainwater runoff and urban flood- dry rain gardens, etc.), the design of ele-
ing, infiltration of rainwater and ground- ments that slow down or change the direc-
One important trend that fits into the water recharge, prevention of urban tion of water runoff (the use of rougher
aforementioned strategies is water- and droughts, reduction of "so-called hydro- pavement, the use of runoff in the form of
vegetation-oriented urban planning and logical stress" in the city, resulting from cascades, appropriate profiling of streets,
sustainable stormwater management. In the uneven distribution of resources in the use of buffer strips, etc.) and a number
practice, this manifests itself, among other time and space, relieving the burden on of others. Solutions using vegetation addi-
things, in the implementation of the idea wastewater treatment plants and rain- tionally affect the increase of interception
of "blue-green infrastructure" in cities, water collectors; (retention of water by vegetation), evapo-
understood as a strategically planned and • preservation/improvement of urban ration and transpiration and thus, in prac-
managed network of natural and water biodiversity; tice, affect those component processes of
52 ENERGETYKA WODNA
ECOLOGY
Source. M. Brzana
important is care at the execution stage
of the investment and the selection of the
quality of the products used, as well as the
course of subsequent operation and main-
tenance.
E W 2/2022 (42) 53
ECOLOGY / Green, blue and energy in cities
tunities to use urban infrastructure for worldwide. An example is the city of Port-
Source: Wikipedia, Solar Roadways Inc
energy generation. A variety of ideas land, where the four special segments,
can accompany and enhance elements equipped with turbines connected to gen-
of blue-green infrastructure. Experimen- erators, produce the electricity needed to
tal solutions already include photovoltaic power 150 houses [12].
roads and paths, small urban pedestrian
power plants (pavements that produce The need for an energy transition can
electricity when people walk on them), therefore be seen not only as a challenge
playing fields that are illuminated by foot- to be faced, but also as an opportunity to
ball players running on them and so on. find creative solutions to enrich and fur-
Photo 5. Solar car park prototype
ther enhance urban space.
ally shallow basins, cascades, water chan- A separate category is the creation of
nels with additional infrastructure (e.g. small urban hydroelectric power plants, Phd Eng. Katarzyna Weinerowska-Bords,
water wheels, fountains, slides, moving using natural watercourses and retention Assoc Prof.
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering
surfaces, water curtains, etc.). In a special facilities in the form of basins and reser- Gdansk University of Technology
case, if designed appropriately, they can voirs. An example of indigenous solutions
also potentially provide a visually satisfy- is the urban hydroelectric power plant that
ing source of small-scale energy used, for was established in 2018 at Służewiecki Park
example, for the illumination of the square. in Warsaw (“Energetyka Wodna”, issue
2/2019). Experimental solutions involv- References:
Developments in technology are con- ing the insertion of water turbines into 1. „2014 revision of the World Urbanization Prospects”,
stantly providing us with further oppor- sewer lines are also being implemented Report of United Nations, Dep. Of. Economic and
Social Affairs, https://www.un.org/en/development/
desa/publications/2014-revision-world-urbaniza-
Source: Wikipedia, Anna Regelsberger
54 ENERGETYKA WODNA
Comprehensive service in Automatic and control systems for hydropower
the field of electrical and plants and hydrotechnical structures
control industry including:
• control systems for hydropower structures
• technical consultancy
• automatic systems for monitoring the stability
• projects
of dams structures
• deliveres and implementation
• starting • electrohydraulic turbine regulators
• maintenance service
• control systems for river weirs and dam bottom
discharge devices
We manage energy
without a carbon
footprint
Szczecin Wrocław Grudziądz
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