The 11th collection of innovative hydro projects was presented at this year’s International Seminar on Hydro Power Plants which took place from 15-17 November in Vienna, Austria.

The conference covered a number of technical subjects including maintenance, operation and planning, uprating and refurbishment, profitability and economy.

The conference provided an excellent opportunity to draw awareness to the research projects of the Institute for Water power and Pumps at the Vienna University of Technology. The Institute presented three papers, including an ‘Economic analysis for uprating and refurbishment’, which describes the development and use of a computer program called REVEX.

The program has been designed to help engineers economically evaluate uprating and refurbishment strategies by providing an initial evaluation of the condition of the whole plant and the resulting possibilities for uprating and refurbishment. The program also provides an optimal refurbishment time for the plant.

The institute is also investigating the splash water velocity field in the casing of a Pelton turbine with particle image velocimetry. The analysis of the flow through injectors and runner buckets is still on a research level and the physical phenomena involved are not yet fully understood or described. It is hoped that with the use of PIV, this project will provide more information and data about the flow conditions inside the turbine.

For more information on uprating and refurbishment see the January issue of International Water Power & Dam Construction.