Tidal Power Plant Working Construction Application and Advantages

In this article we will know about the Tidal Power plant working costruction application and advantages . We will also learn about the main advantages and limitation of tidal power plant. 

Tidal power plant construction working application and advantages
Tidal power plant construction working application and advantages

Tidal Power Plant working Construction Application and advantages

As per our title which is tidal power plant working construction application and advantages. we will know about  three main components of tidal power plants 

Tidal Power Plant Working Construction Application

  • The power house
  • The dam or barrage (low wall) to form pool or basin.
  • Sluiceways from the basins to the sea and vice versa.

The Turbines electric generators and other auxiliary equipments are the main equipments of a powerhouse. The function of dam to form a barrier between the sea and the basin or between one basin and the other in case of multiple basins.

  • Power house of Tidal Power Plant

Because small heads only are available, large size turbines are needed: hence, the powerhouse is also a large structure. Both the French and Soviet operating plants use the bulb type of turbine. Of the propeller type, with reversible blades, bulbs have horizontal shafts coupled to a single generator. The cost per installed kilowatt drops with turbine size, and perhaps larger turbines might be installed in a future in a future major tidal power plant.

  • Dam (Barrage)  of Tidal Power Plant

Dam and barrage are synonymous terms. Barrage has been suggested as a more accurate term for tidal power schemes, because it has only to withstand heads a fraction of the structure’s height, and stability problems are far more modest. However, the literature does not always make the distinction, even though heads are small with tidal power cut offs.

Tidal power barrage adds also to the price tag of the plant, short barrages are preferred even if basin size may have to be smaller because of site choice. up to a height of 20m, cost remains proportional to length as it is not changed by the need to build a dam wall to withstand high hydrostatic pressure. When the elevation exceeds the 20m limit, costs increase faster with length. Most tidal power plants do not have heads exceeding 20m. 

The barrage needs to provide channels for the turbines in prestressed or reinforced concrete. To build these channels a temporary cofferdam is necessary, but it is now possible to built them on land, float them to the site, and sink them into place. According to title which is tidal power plant working construction application we will describe every point.

Tidal Power Plant Working Construction Application
Tidal Power Plant Working Construction Application
  • Gates and Locks  of Tidal Power Plant

Tidal power basins have to be filled and emptied. Gates are opened regularly and frequently but heads very in height and on the side where they occur, which is not the case with conventional river projects. The gates must be opened and closed rapidly and this operation should use a minimum of power. Leakage is tolerable for gates and barrage. Since we are dealing with seawater, corrosion problems are actuate, they have been very successfully solved by the cathodic protection and where not possible by paint. Gate structures can be floated as modular units into place.

  • Sluice-Ways  of Tidal Power Plant

The sluiceways are used either to fill the basin during the high tide or empty  the basin during the low tide, as per operational requirement. These are gate controlled devices. These topic are escribe title which is tidal power plant working construction application and advantages.

It is generally convenient to have the power house as well as the sluice-ways in alignment with the dam. The design cycle may also provide for pumping between the basin and the sea in either direction. If reversible pump turbines are provided, the pumping operation can be taken over at any time by the same machine. The modern tubular turbines are so versatile that they can be used either as turbines or as pumps in either direction of flow. In addition, the tubular passages can also be used as sluiceway by locking the machine to a stand still. As compared to conventional plants this, however, imposes a great number of operations in tidal power plants. For instance, the periodic opening and closing of the sluiceways of a tidal plant are about 730 times in a year. Tidal power plant  working  construction application and advantages.

Single Basing System  of Tidal Power Plant

The simplest scheme for developing tidal power is the single basin arrangement, in which a single basin of constant area is provided with sluices (gates), large enough to admit the tide, so that the loss of head is small. The level of water in the basin is the same as that of the tide outside. When the tides are high, water is stored in the basin and sluices are closed. When the tides are falling. Sluices are opened to allow water to go through the turbine to generate power. A head of water is obviously required for the turbine to generate water. This continues to generate power until the level of the falling tides coincides with the level of the next rising tide. These are also describe out titile which is tidal power plant working construction application and advantages.

Double Basin Arrangement  of Tidal Power Plant

It requires two separate but adjacent basins. In one basin called “upper basin”  *or high pool), the water level is maintained above that in the other, the low basin (or low pool). Because there is always a head between upper and lower basins, electricity can be generated continuously, although at a variable rate.

In this system, the turbines are located in between the two adjacent basins, while the sluice gates are as usual embodied in the dam across the mouths of the two estuaries. At the beginning of the flood tide, the turbines are shut down, the gates of upper basin A are opened and those of the lower basin B are closed. The basin A is thus filled up while the basin B remains empty. As soon as the rising water level in A provides sufficient difference of head between the two basins, the turbines are stated. The water flows from A to B through the turbines, generating power. These are tidal power plant working construction  application and advantages.

Tidal power plant construction working application and advantages
Tidal power plant construction working application and advantages

The power generation thus continues simultaneously with the filling up the basin A. at the end of the flood tide when A is full and the water level in it is the maximum, its sluice gates are closed. When the ebb tide level gets lower than the water level in B, its sluice gates are opened whereby the water level in B, which was arising and reducing the operating head, starts filling with the ebb. This continues until the operating head and water level in A is sufficient to run the turbines. With the next flood tide, the cycle repeats itself. With this twin basin system, a longer and more continuous period of generation per day is possible. The small gaps in the operation of such stations can be filled up by thermal power. By this title have clear which is tidal power plant construction working application and advantages

Tidal Power Plant Generation Advantages

  1. The biggest advantage of the tidal power is besides being inexhaustible; it is completely independent of the precipitation (rain) and its uncertainty. Even a continuous dry spell of any number of years can have no affect whatsoever on the tidal power generation.
  2. Tidal power generation is free from pollution, as it does not use any fuel and also does produce any unhealthy waste like gases, ash, atomic refuse.
  3. These power plants do not demand large area of valuable land because they are on the bays (seashore).
  4. Peak power demand can be effectively met when it works in combination with thermal or hydroelectric system.
Tidal Power Plant Advantages and Limitation
Tidal Power Plant Advantages and Limitation
Tidal power Plant Limitations 

There are a number of reasons, why the tidal power generation is still a novelty, rather than a normal source of energy. The reason can be enumerated as below

  1. The fundamental drawback to all methods of generating tidal power is the variability in output caused by the variations in the tidal range.
  2. The tidal ranges are highly variable and thus the turbines have to work on a wide range of head variation. This affects the efficiency of the plant.
  3. Since the tidal power generation depends upon the level difference in the sea and an inland basin, it has to be a intermittent operation, feasible only at a certain stage of the tidal cycle. This intermittent pattern could be improved to some extent by using multiple basins and a double cycle system.
  4. This tidal range is limited to a few meters. Thus the bulb turbine technology was not well developed, use of conventional Kaplan runners was the only alternative. This was found to be unsuitable. Now with the development of reversible flow bulb turbines, this difficulty is overcome.
  5. The duration of power cycle may be reasonably constant but its time of occurrence keeps in changing, introducing difficulties in the planning of the load sharing every day in a grid. The handicap can be removed now with the help of computerized programming.
  6. Seawater is corrosive and it was feared that the machinery might be corroded. Stainless steel with high chromium content and a small amount of molybdenum and the aluminum bronzes proved to be good corrosion resistant at La Rance project. The vinyl paint exhibited good results.
  7. Construction in sea or in estuaries is found difficult.
  8. Cost is not favorable compared to the other sources of energy.
  9. It is feared that the tidal power plant would hamper the other natural use of estuaries such as fishing or navigation.

Hence these are tidal power plant working construction application and advantages. From above article we have learn about different kind advantages of tidal power plant and their limitation.

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