FEASIBILITY STUDY OF MICRO HYDRO ENERGY HARVESTED FROM WATER PIPELINE

Water is being consumed everyday by the residents in Universiti Teknologi
PETRONAS (UTP) for domestic use. Each year, UTP is using an average of 7.120
million litres of water and this large amount of water is not being fully utilized to
produce electricity. Besides that, high electricity demand in the institution for various
researches’ purposes and increasing population forced UTP to find more electrical
energy source. The kinetic energy possessed in the water flowing in the pipeline can
be utilized to produce electrical energy whenever water is being consumed. Therefore,
the aim of this project is to do a feasibility study on the amount of power harvested
from water flow inside the water pipeline. Three criteria such as water flow rate,
rotational turbine and power generated were calculated using formulas. The rotational
calculation for propeller type of turbine andpower produced calculation for
synchronous type of generator are being used as the reference to calculate the turbine
rotations and power generated. The real value of water flow rate was measured using
flow rate meter and been compared with the calculated value. The specifications of
generator were produced for the purpose of future research. A simulation using
Simulink is also been developed to easily calculate the amount of power produced and
show the ability of the water pipeline to produce electrical energy for the institution
consumption.