Tag: Energy recovery

Revamping an old hydro in the era of climate change

Revamping an old hydro in the era of climate change

Posted on by Easy Hydro team

Located in dry Southern Spain, this hydropower scheme was built in the 1960s and features a 650 kW Francis turbine. Even if the design capacity was adequate to the amount of water flow available at the time, the effects of climate change have caused a drastic reduction in water availability. As a result of this, the turbine has only been operated sporadically over the last decade since on most days there wasn’t a sufficient water flow to start the unit.

View of the Easy Hydro turbine (left) being lowered by crane into the turbine hall
The installed turbine and relative valves

After diagnosing the situation and assessing the historical flow records, the Easy Hydro team recommended adding a low-cost Pump As Turbine (PAT) in parallel to the existing 650 kW unit. The new equipment was recently installed and will soon be commissioned, thus providing a stable 90-100 kW power generation and utilizing the water that otherwise bypasses the main turbine.

A New 50 kW hydro turbine for a Spanish water utility

A New 50 kW hydro turbine for a Spanish water utility

Posted on by Easy Hydro team

A water utility in Northern Spain is set to reduce its electricity bill thanks to an Easy Hydro energy recovery solution.  A 50 kW turbine now sits at the inlet of a treatment plant, supplied by a gravity-fed water source.

For this project, Easy Hydro provided the design expertise and the equipment (turbine, valves, electrical and control panels) required to complete the project.

50 kW Easy Hydro turbine

#easyhydro #watersector #hydropower #innovation #energyrecovery #savings #energyefficiency

Easy Hydro helps an Irish estate to audit an existing hydro and bring it back online

Posted on by Easy Hydro team

Alongside its industrial energy recovery projects, Easy Hydro also provides services to “traditional” hydro sites.

This estate in Ireland had a small hydro system which had fallen into dis-use. The Easy Hydro team conducted a full audit and tested each part of the system (intake, storage pond, penstock, turbine house) which allowed our engineers to identify the key steps needed to bring the site back into full operation.

With the first of those steps already completed, the site is well on its way back to generating almost 20 kW of green energy from the water flowing through it!

#easyhydro #hydropower #sustainability #energyrecovery #energyefficiency #pumpsasturbines #

Easy Hydro is delighted to announce the successful commissioning of two turbines in an active underground mine

Posted on by Easy Hydro team

The two turbines are installed in parallel and are located 50 m below the ground level on the discharge line from the mine water treatment plant. After passing through the turbines, the water is then released into a nearby watercourse.

The energy recovery system was designed and installed as an integral part of the water management infrastructure of the mine, with the aim of minimizing the environmental impact of the mineral extraction operations. Since last November, Easy Hydro’s innovative low-cost hydro solution is helping our customer to self-generate over 20% of the energy needed to run its water treatment plant!

#easyhydro #mining #pumpsasturbines #innovation #energyefficiency #lowcost #selfgenerate #energyrecovery

Easy Hydro provides a wide range of services to help with your hydropower project

Posted on by Easy Hydro team
The five stages of the Easy Hydro process: feasibility study, engineering design, equipment supply, commissioning and optimization.

Easy Hydro’s Engineers offer world-class prefeasibility studies to help you make the most cost effective and energy efficient decision for your business.

WHAT IS A PRE-FEASIBILITY STUDY?

A pre-feasibility study is an early-stage analysis of a potential project. It typically gives an overview of a project’s logistics, benefits, capital requirements, key challenges and other information deemed important to the decision-making process. Saving you time and money in the long run.

Easy Hydro’s roots are in over twelve years of small hydropower research. Building on that wealth of knowledge and culture of innovation, our engineers can offer innovative and low-cost ways of implementing hydro energy recovery within existing water infrastructures. Whether down a mine, in water/wastewater treatment plant or on an industrial cooling system, we can provide a solution to customers willing to reduce their energy bills and cut down on CO2 emissions.

Below are charts taken from a pre-feasibility done for one of our customers.

Examples of pre-feasibilities

#easyhydro #energyrecovery #reliability #hydropower #pumpsasturbines #energyefficiency

A big Easy Hydro welcome to Rita, the newest member to join our team. Thrilled to have you on board!

A big Easy Hydro welcome to Rita, the newest member to join our team. Thrilled to have you on board!

Posted on by Easy Hydro team

To mark the occasion, we enjoyed a team building day around Dublin for some historical sightseeing at Trinity College’s Book of Kells exhibition followed by a Dublin City walking tour.

From the left: Aonghus, Mike, Rita, Bhavya, Nadia & Paul (Aonghus & Paul representing Trinity College)
Old Library inside the Book of Kells.
From the left: Aonghus, Mike, Rita, Bhavya, Nadia & Paul

Easy Hydro exhibits at the 2023 ACCADUEO H2O fair in Bologna

Easy Hydro exhibits at the 2023 ACCADUEO H2O fair in Bologna

Posted on by Easy Hydro team

The biennial ACCADUEO H2O exhibition has been the reference event for the Italian water sector for the past 30 years. Its 16th edition was held in Bologna in October 11th-13th and featured a busy schedule of events and conferences alongside two halls hosting hundreds of international exhibitors. Among them was Easy Hydro, who shared a stand with our partner Tecnidro.

This was the perfect opportunity to present a full-scale prototype of our hydro energy recovery solution for pressurized water networks. Instead of just dissipating the excess available pressure via throttling valves or tank inflow valves, the adoption of an Easy Hydro system allows the network operator to generate some valuable green electricity as a byproduct.

A big thank you to Tecnidro, SAER Elettropompe, to the organizers of the event and above all to the many who stopped by our stand during the three days! Stay tuned for the upcoming Easy Hydro events.

The iAMP-Hydro project, of which Easy Hydro is a member, has secured a €4.1M Horizon Europe research grant

Posted on by Easy Hydro team

Easy Hydro is part of the iAMP-Hydro consortium (intelligent Asset Management Platform for Hydropower) that has been awarded with a €4.1 million Horizon Europe project to develop digital solutions that will improve the efficiency, flexibility and sustainability of the existing EU hydropower fleet. The project has the potential to make a huge impact on energy sustainability in the EU, where 50% of the current hydro generation assets may require upgrading by 2030.

The partners of the consortium will improve the operations of existing power stations through the development of new digital sensors and services, which will collectively form iAMP: a novel intelligent Asset Management Platform encompassing secure open and transparent data-sharing protocols and three novel digital solutions. These include new condition monitoring and predictive maintenance tools for hydropower turbines, the ecological water status monitoring and improved weather and flow forecasting.

Within the project, Easy Hydro will lead the development of a tool to improve the operations and maintenance of hydro generation assets. The aim is to increase the competitiveness of the existing hydro fleet by improving flexibility, energy generation and revenues. The full package of digital solutions will be validated at a diverse set of existing hydropower plants located around Europe, producing evidence for policy-makers to support the green and digital transition of hydropower. The hydropower plants where the solutions will be tested include schemes  differing between themselves in terms of installed capacity, turbine type, water use, flow and head parameters, climatic conditions, and environmental sensitivities.

The three-years project partnership includes Trinity College Dublin, Easy Hydro, Cuerva Energia, Suite 5 Data Intelligence Solutions, CARTIF, EDP, PPC Renewables, WIP, Norce and Politehnica University of Bucharest.

Recovering Invisible Waste (a.k.a. "Can you really put a hydro there?!!")

Recovering Invisible Waste (a.k.a. “Can you really put a hydro there?!!”)

Posted on by Easy Hydro team

Our Commercial Director Mike has recently published an article on the UK’s EMA (Energy Managers Association) Magazine issue 2/2023, pages 35-37 which describes a number of pioneering hydropower energy recovery applications that the Easy Hydro team has designed over the last few years. These installations span across several industries (drinking water, hydropower, underground mining, mineral processing) but they all share the same design principle: how to generate electricity from the excess pressure of process water flowing inside existing pipes?

Large businesses are getting good at spotting their waste and minimising it: Reducing it; Recycling it. Yet for many of these, if they are large water users, there may be another waste that they don’t see: the excess water pressure in their pipes…

Mike Pedley

The full article can be read online on the EMA Magazine web page (no registration required) or via the viewer below: