Contribuição para o estudo e a aplicação de bombas funcionando como turbinas na geração descentralizada

Abstract

Micro hydro systems are important alternatives to be considered in the national energy plan. In the last years, with the development of new technological solutions, the field has been increasingly gaining more importance. Distributed generation provides expectations of a fertile setting for an even more pronounced growth of the micro hydro sector. Given the great hydroelectric potential of Brazil, there is a vast applicationfor such systems on the supply of electricity in rural areas. The use of PATs - Pumps as Turbines - replacing the conventional hydraulic turbines has drawn attention because of the advantages they present. Although this is a subject which has been explored for some years, doubts are still raised about its performance and viability. This becomes an obstacle for the dissemination of PATs in electricity generation applications. This work will present some answers about the behavior of the PAT working invariable speed. The analysis will be directed to the efficiency characteristics of the machine. The goal is to provide information to subsidize decisions of application of variable speed PAT in electricity generating. Furthermore, it presents a proposal for regulating voltage and frequency of a generator to be applied in isolated systems. This proposal is supported by large availability of pumps in the market, which helps the access of maintenance, a key feature for application in regions far from major centers. For that reason, focus has been placed on components which propagate this feature for the system as a whole. The work includes construction of a bench test and the research focuses the experimentation.