A Study on the Hydropower Energy Generation by Utilizing Domestic Water Supply

Abstract

Majority of households around the globe are connected to primary water supply grids that supply water for domestic use throughout the year. In many instances, the companies supplying water to these households maintain header pressure between the maximum and minimum as a guarantee for the water to reach the consumers. This paper is, therefore, aimed at investigating the potential of this pressure in driving turbines for power generation so that the energy could be stored in rechargeable batteries which can be utilized whenever needed. Two sets of experimental setups were developed with turbines arranged both in series and parallel. The experiments were conducted using three working pressures, such as 1.5, 3.2 and 5 bar. It was observed that the turbine mainly depends on the water flow rate, where the higher flow rate is achieved in working pressure of 5 bar which is 33 LPM and 6 Watt generated. The power produced was increased to 12 W with a slight pressure drop of 0.1 bar after the second turbine. However, the drop in pressure was observed to be slightly higher for the lower working pressure. The turbine cut-off pressure was 0.4 bar. Moreover, it was also evidenced that arranging the turbines in parallel has also resulted in an enhanced power generation.