Engineering topics

Dham, Rajesh

Publications and source records attributed to Dham, Rajesh.

3 records

DOE OSTI2012

Best Practices Implementation for Hydropower Efficiency and Utilization Improvement

By using best practices to manage unit and plant efficiency, hydro owner/operators can achieve significant improvements in overall plant performance, resulting in increased generation and profitability and, frequently, reduced maintenance costs. The Hydropower Advancement Project (HAP) was initiated by the Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to develop and implement a systematic process with standard methodology, based on the best practices of operations, maintenance and upgrades; to identify the improvement opportunities at existing hydropower facilities; and to predict and trend the overall condition and improvement opportunity within the U.S. hydropower fleet. The HAP facility assessment includes both quantitative condition ratings and data-based performance analyses. However, this paper, as an overview document for the HAP, addresses the general concepts, project scope and objectives, best practices for unit and plant efficiency, and process and methodology for best practices implementation for hydropower efficiency and utilization improvement.

Smith, Brennan T↗

DOE OSTI2012

Methodology and Process for Condition Assessment at Existing Hydropower Plants

Hydropower Advancement Project was initiated by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to develop and implement a systematic process with a standard methodology to identify the opportunities of performance improvement at existing hydropower facilities and to predict and trend the overall condition and improvement opportunity within the U.S. hydropower fleet. The concept of performance for the HAP focuses on water use efficiency how well a plant or individual unit converts potential energy to electrical energy over a long-term averaging period of a year or more. The performance improvement involves not only optimization of plant dispatch and scheduling but also enhancement of efficiency and availability through advanced technology and asset upgrades, and thus requires inspection and condition assessment for equipment, control system, and other generating assets. This paper discusses the standard methodology and process for condition assessment of approximately 50 nationwide facilities, including sampling techniques to ensure valid expansion of the 50 assessment results to the entire hydropower fleet. The application and refining process and the results from three demonstration assessments are also presented in this paper.

Zhang, Qin Fen↗

DOE OSTI2012

Data-Based Performance Assessments for the DOE Hydropower Advancement Project

The U. S. Department of Energy s Hydropower Advancement Project (HAP) was initiated to characterize and trend hydropower asset conditions across the U.S.A. s existing hydropower fleet and to identify and evaluate the upgrading opportunities. Although HAP includes both detailed performance assessments and condition assessments of existing hydropower plants, this paper focuses on the performance assessments. Plant performance assessments provide a set of statistics and indices that characterize the historical extent to which each plant has converted the potential energy at a site into electrical energy for the power system. The performance metrics enable benchmarking and trending of performance across many projects in a variety contexts (e.g., river systems, power systems, and water availability). During FY2011 and FY2012, assessments will be performed on ten plants, with an additional fifty plants scheduled for FY2013. This paper focuses on the performance assessments completed to date, details the performance assessment process, and describes results from the performance assessments.

March, Patrick↗