Micro-Hydropower in Majé Chimán, Panama Tyler Losinski Katie Price Andrea Walvatne Christine Matlock Advisor: David Watkins, PhD Special Thanks to: J. Cole and Kelli Whelan Problem Description Data Collection System Design Cost Estimate Social Impacts Conclusions Fig. 1 Created by Tyler Losinski Fig. 2 Taken by Andrea Walvatne Fig. 3 Taken by J. Cole Fig. 4 Taken by J. Cole Fig. 6 Fig. 7 Created by Christine Matlock Fig. 8 Created by Katie Price Fig. 9 Fig Fig. 11 Created by Andrea Walvatne Fig. 12 Created by Tyler Losinski The cost of this project, shown in Table 1, is very high for the community to be able to afford. Some parts have expensive maintenance as well. The suggestion is to obtain grants or a form of government help. Table 1 Estimated cost Zapatero Engineering believes that the system designed in this project could fulfill the electrical desires of the Majé Chimán community and increase the standard of living. Hydro power is a renewable and sustainable option, but also an expensive one. While this system can provide a large amount of electricity, it costs approximately $7,000 per kW. There are also construction and maintenance issues due to the great distances involved. Safety around the system is a concern. The community needs to understand the hazards of electricity and how to manage them. The Team believes the community should take the design provided and use it to further pursue an electrical generation option that is sustainable and economical, whether that be micro hydroelectric or another option. With this information, the community should be able to make an educated decision. Fig. 13 Taken by J. Cole Fig. 14 Taken by J. Cole Energy Savings Fig. 5 Basic micro-hydro power system diagram Figure 13 Energy management comparisons This project is located in the small village of Majé Chimán in eastern Panama. It is a six hour journey by bus and motorboat from Panama City, as seen in Figure 1. A thousand people of the Wounan tribe live there and sell wood carvings and baskets. They have an existing electrical system supported by a diesel generator. The increasing cost of fuel and transportation has made this government implemented system unsuitable. As a result, they asked Zapatero Engineering to design a Micro hydro electric system at a nearby waterfall. The current wires and community life can be seen in Figure 2. Two trips from the community through the jungle were completed to collect the necessary data. The waterfall, Chorro Falls (Figure 4), is 11 kilometers from the village. The available head, or height, of the waterfall is approximately 90 feet, calculated with use of an abney level. The flow rate was calculated by timing a floating bottle and measuring the area of the river downstream shown in Figure 3. The electrical generation site will be located downstream from the base of the waterfall, out of the flood plain. Surveys of the community members were also taken of what electrical appliances they would use and typical times of use. This data was compiled in order to calculate the power draw and how the power would be used by the community. After consideration of losses due to efficiency, penstock, gearing, and distance, this system generates about 78.4 kW. The community needs to use this energy wisely. Figure 13 shows the span of a 24 hour day and when power was being utilized. The red line represents what the community expressed for appliances and when they would be using them. The yellow line is an example of a managed system where certain percentages of the community uses an appliance at different times. With the managed system they have enough power from the proposed hydropower system. The community would need to follow a management like this in order to have the power available, especially if their usage grows. A diversion structure will be made to direct no more then half of the river to the forebay structure. It will be made with rock and metal mesh. The water will then flow into a channel dug into the bank of the river. An example of this is in Figure 6. The forebay is a holding area for the water. It regulates the flow of the river and supplies consistent pressure to the powerhouse. It is constructed from concrete and a corrugated roof. A model of it is seen in Figure 7. The penstock is made from 18-inch diameter, schedule 40, PVC pipe. It will take the water down the slope to the powerhouse, traversing around rocks and trees. Larger direction changes will require force blocks for the angles. A diagram of the penstock is in Figure 8. A cross flow turbine was determined as the best option based on the head and flow rate. A cross flow is an impulse turbine that has a rectangular nozzle at the top and the water hits it twice before going to the tailrace and back to the river. Figure 9 shows a model of the turbine. The generator selected is a synchronous generator. It is 3-phase at 60 Hertz. It will supply 480 Volts of power and rotate at 1800 RPM. It will give the needed 84 kW of power after going through a gearing and controlling system after the turbine. A picture of it is found in Figure 10. The housing structure will be made with a concrete slab as a base with wooden walls and a corrugated roof. This structure needs to be watertight and have a tailrace underneath for the used water. A model can be seen in Figure 11. This schematic in Figure 12 shows how the electricity will be transmitted to the community. The voltage needs to be stepped up at a transformer to decrease losses over the long distance, then stepped down at the community. When designing a system of this caliber, the social impact to the community must be considered. The men of the community expressed that their families wanted each to have a washer in their homes, but currently the women all go to the river to wash clothes (Figure 15) and the concern is that they would lose their social time. A suggestion was to have a laundromat on both sides of the community which would decrease the power usage and still provide a social aspect of community washing. A couple positive impacts that would come with electricity would be computers for the school children and for writing grants and official documents. Also, there could be an increasing use of power tools to make their carvings (Figure 14). This means they could generate more income as well as have more time for chores or family. 2