B8879 - GESTIONE DEGLI INVASI E IMPIANTI IDROELETTRICI M

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students have knowledge and critical understanding of the engineering systems and structures for the sustainable management of water, and in particular of multipurpose artificial reservoirs and hydropower plants. Students develop their skill by applying their knowledge to a real-world case study, devel-oping an individual project on water resources assessment and hydropower production, with both reservoir and run-of-the-river power plants.

Course contents

Requirements/Prior knowledge

Robust knowledge of Hydraulics and Hydrology, and in particular of under-pressure pipe flow and open-channel flow, meteo-hydrological measures and the statistical analysis of extreme events, is required to attend with profit this course. Students should also be able to use spread-sheets and/or programming macrolanguages (Matlab or R).

The lessons, apart from the seminars, will be held in Italian. It is therefore necessary to understand the Italian language in order to follow the course profitably.

Course Contents

The course deals with the fundamental elements underlying the design and operation of systems and structures for the multiple use of water resources, with particular attention to artificial reservoirs and to the production of hydroelectric energy.

Multiple-use water systems: Water uses and requirements. Assessment of water demands. Multiple-use reservoirs. The large dams in the world and in Italy.

Evaporative losses from reservoirs: description and comparison of the main methods used to estimate evaporation from open water surfaces, including an assessment of the meteorological data required for their application. A student assignment, including a brief written report, is included, aimed at acquiring and validating meteorological time series and at applying and comparing different methods for calculating the evaporation rate.

Environmental/ecological flow: principles and analysis of the main regulatory and practical approaches to e-flow assessment and implementation. A student assignment, including a brief written report, is included, aimed at estimating environmental flow requirements through hydrological methods (based on the analysis of streamflow time series).

Water Resources Systems Analysis: mathematical modelling of water resources systems: simulation and optimization methods.

Reservoir planning and management: sizing, operation rules, estimation and control of sedimentation. A student assignment, including a brief written report, is included, aimed at sizing a reservoir based on streamflow measurements and accounting for evaporative losses.

Run-of-river hydropower plants: intake structure and plant configurations; main types of hydraulic turbines; assessment of energy production. The module includes a student assignment on the sizing of a run-of-river hydropower plant, based on the river flow duration curve and incorporating an economic assessment through financial analysis.

Reservoir hydropower plants with flow regulation: plant configurations, operating principles of hydraulic turbines; analysis of hydraulic transients in pressurized conveyance systems (water hammer) and surge oscillations; design and verification of penstocks and surge shaft.

Pumped-storage hydropower plants: plant configurations, characteristics and operation of reversible pump-turbine units; strategic role of pumped-storage hydropower in large-scale energy storage and in enabling the integration of variable renewable energy sources into modern power systems.

Readings/Bibliography

Lecture slides, as well as review articles and research papers that are not open access, will be made available on Virtuale for registered students.

Additional reading material includes:

Allen, R. G., Pereira, L. S., Raes, D., and Smith, M.: Crop evapotranspiration Guidelines for computing crop water requirements, FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 56, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 1998.

Evangelisti G., Impianti idroelettrici, vol. I, Patron

Evangelisti G., Impianti idroelettrici, vol. II, Patron

Kondolf, G. M. et al. (2014), Sustainable sediment management in reservoirs and regulated rivers: Experiences from five continents, Earth’s Future, 2, 256–280, doi:10.1002/2013EF000184.

Loucks, D. P. and Ellco Van Beek (2005) Water Resources Systems Planning and Management: An Introduction to Methods, Models and Applications., UNESCO, Netherlands.

Jain, S.K., and Singh, V.P. (2003). Water Resources Systems Planning and Management. Elsevier, Amsterdam.

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures. Seminars with experts and technical visits. In-class exercises and home assignments, including spreadsheets/computer programming and use of specific software.

Assessment methods

Student achievement is assessed through: i) a written exam where the student is asked to reply to open questions focusing on the topics covered during the lectures (students should attend all lectures or obtain the notes from their colleagues when absent) without the aid of notes or books; ii) an oral exam where the student discusses the outcome of the written exam and the home assignments (the report on the assignments is to be sent one week before the exam).

Teaching tools

Lecture slides, assignments and exercises and their draft solutions are published in the collection “Virtuale” - University of Bologna (virtuale.unibo.it/) for registered students.

The teaching material is partly in Italian and partly in English.

Office hours

See the website of Elena Toth

See the website of Cristiana Bragalli