ANTON DE KOM UNIVERSITEIT VAN SURINAME INSTITUTE FOR GRADUATE STUDIES & RESEARCH (IGSR) Master of Science in Renewable Energy Technology MSc RET Thesis Design hydropower plant with Indalma turbine at the Tapawatra fall within the perspective of sustainable development Assessment of the Pico and Micro hydropower potential in the upper stream of the Suriname River Student Name: Andy Aboikoni Student number: 16RET1000 Supervisor: Dr. Rudi van Els1 Co-Supervisors: Ir. R. Nannan, Phd2 and Dr. C. Blanco3 1 Energy Engineering Faculty of Gama, University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil 2 Institute for Graduate Studies and Research, Anton de Kom University of Suriname 3 College of Sanitary Environmental Engineering, Federal University of Pará, Rua Augusto Corrêa 01 Belém – Pará, 66075-110, Brazil Andy Aboikoni “The easiest way to grow as a person, is to surround yourself with people smarter than you” Page 2 of 77 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT “Ha sido largo el viaje pero al fin llegué”; (it seemed to be a long journey, but I finally made it - Marcela Gandara). A long journey, starting with the internship at the Federal University of Brasilia (UNB) together with my roommate Saïf Alimoestar, under supervision of Dr. Rudi H. van Els, in April 2017. Being in Brazil for study, while my son was born in Suriname. A journey that seemed not to be ended, but finally I got through it. Gratitude to my wife Nowemy and my children Jenaya, Sue-Ann and Izar for all the time I was out of home for study. I also thank my parents for their contribution to my career. A special thanks to Dr. van Els, who put his beliefs and efforts in guiding me through this journey. This work is carried out to give back to the community at the Upper Suriname River, where I grew up at the village Dangogo. The experience I got during my primary school at Djoemoe, the long- distance walk through the jungle to attend school and to study without electricity in the interior have inspired me to focus on a sustainable electricity supply of the villages with renewable energy. This work does not claim to solve the problem of limited electricity supply in the villages in Suriname, but it is a guide to sustainable electricity supply to the villages to improve the living condition in the villages and to promote economic development. This work is dedicated to my grandmother, Akindoina Aboikoni, who took care of me during my primary school period and still believe in my successes; “Gaantangi Fii mi Avó”4 (thank you, grandma). Andy Aboikoni October 2019 4 Native language of the Saamaka Maroon tribe Page 3 of 77 ABSTRACT This work presents the results of a hydropower project at the Tapawatra fall, Upper Suriname River, within the perspective of sustainable development. The main objective of this work is to elaborate on a methodology to support the technical and economic feasibility and sustainability of Pico hydropower plants in the Surinamese interior. The elaborated methodology has four parts, viz. literature review, the adoption of the “decision support system (DSS) for Micro hydropower plants”, field orientation and measurements, assessment of the rainfall and discharge data using the transferability method and the design of a Pico hydropower plant up-scaled to a Micro hydropower plant. The transferability method is used to transfer the discharge and to draw the Flow Duration Curve for the Tapawatra catchment area, with a mean discharge of 66.20 m3/s and hydropower potential of 1,363 kW available for 38% a year. The designed Pico hydropower plant has an output of 210 W. The up-scaled Micro hydropower plant has an output of 11 kW, available for 12 months a year and can supply a nearby tourism resort for electricity and for community purposes such as charging station for mobile phones. The Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) for the Pico hydropower plant is 5.60 USD/kWh and 0.67 USD/kWh for the up-scaled Micro hydropower plant. Compared with LCOE values from similar renewable energy projects in the South-American region, especially the Brazilian Amazon area, and recent studies for the Upper Suriname River it can be concluded that the up-scaled Micro hydropower for Tapawatra is financially viable and has also a lower LCOE value than the current power generation in the nearby villages with diesel generators, 0.86 USD/kWh. Keywords: Rainfall run-off, Indalma turbine, Similarity laws, Flow duration curve, Pico hydropower, Micro hydropower. Page 4 of 77 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS & ACRONYMS 3I Indalma Industries Inc. AdeKUS Anton de Kom University of Suriname BCR Benefit Cost Ratio CBB Centraal Bureau voor Burgerzaken, (Central Office for Civil Affairs) CBvS Centrale Bank van Suriname C-SERMS Caribbean Sustainable Energy Roadmap and Strategy DEV Dienst Electrificatie Voorzieningen EAS Energy Authority Suriname ENSO El Niño Southern Oscillation ESP Energy Sector Plan FDC Flow Duration Curve GoS Government of Suriname NV EBS NV Energiebedrijven Suriname PPA Power Purchase Agreement LCOE Levelised Cost Of Electricity N North Latitude W West Longitude H Head UNB Federal University of Brasilia Re Reynolds number Page 5 of 77 LIST OF SYMBOLS Symbol Definition Unit A Area m2 D Diameter m F Force N g Gravity constant N/kg L Length m N turbine speed rpm or rad/sec P Power W p Pressure Bar Q Flow m3/s T Time s V Velocity m/s Efficiency % Friction coëfficient - Density kg/m3 Ω turbine speed rad/sec Page 6 of 77 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................................................................... 3 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................... 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS & ACRONYMS ........................................................................................................ 5 LIST OF SYMBOLS .......................................................................................................................................... 6 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................... 11 1.1. Background information ............................................................................................................. 11 1.2. Problem statement ..................................................................................................................... 12 1.3. Objective ..................................................................................................................................... 13 1.4. Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 13 1.4.1. Literature review ................................................................................................................. 14 1.4.2. Field orientation and measurements.................................................................................... 15 1.4.3. Assessment of head and flow fluctuation ............................................................................ 16 1.4.4. Design of Pico hydropower plant ........................................................................................ 16 1.4.5. Structure of the thesis .......................................................................................................... 16 2. THE ELECTRICITY SECTOR IN SURINAME ............................................................................................. 18 2.1. Electricity sector in Suriname ..................................................................................................... 18 2.2. Electricity supply Surinamese interior ........................................................................................ 20 2.3. Renewable energy projects in Suriname .................................................................................... 23 2.3.1. Solar .................................................................................................................................... 23 2.3.2. Hydro .................................................................................................................................. 24 2.3.3. Biomass ............................................................................................................................... 25 3. LITERATURE STUDY ON HYDROPOWER PLANT ................................................................................... 26 3.1. Hydropower generation .............................................................................................................. 26 3.1.1. Hydropower and its classification ....................................................................................... 26 3.1.2. Hydropower generation for the interior .............................................................................. 27 Page 7 of 77 3.2. Hydro potential measurement ................................................................................................... 28 3.2.1. Flow rate measurements ...................................................................................................... 28 3.2.2. Head measurements ............................................................................................................ 33 3.2.2.3. Topography and GIS data ............................................................................................... 35 3.2.3. Hydropower output ............................................................................................................