EA was named as a supplier for a dam construction project which went out for tender. This large dam is for the water supply for a community in the interior of BC. A small amount of power was required to operate the monitoring and automatic valves.

Details

• Microhydro turbine generates between 50-300 watts of power
• Stored in a sealed AGM battery bank
• DR3624 inverter powers loads

Challenges:

• This system was designed by an an engineer. Need we say more?
• Engineer did not properly account for variations in head pressure as the water level rises and falls. This had a dramatic effect on the power output.
• 1 week after this system was installed, it was stolen. So we went back a week later, and re-did everything.
• Plumbing of microhydro manifold inefficient due to exessive 90o bends. Engineers!