Estudo de incremento de potência da pequena central hidrelétrica Usina Curemas, Coremas-PB.

Abstract

It is known that investments in hydroelectric power plant renovations are unfeasible from a socio-environmental point of view, so the repowering was created in order to increase the energy generated by the turbines of old plants. For the PCH, repowering is seen as a more sustainable form of development, promoting greater performance and power gains, in addition to having a lower value than a construction. Based on this, this research was developed with the main objectives of increasing the power of the turbines of the SHP Usina Curemas and reaching 4.1 MW of generated power to supply the municipality of Coremas, using four forms of repowering, namely: replacement of existing turbines for more modern ones of the same type, which resulted in an increase of 301.53 kW compared to the old Francis turbine, replacement of the existing turbines by others of another type where the increase was 83.23 kW, heightening of the reservoir dam obtaining a gain of 140 kW compared to the old turbine, and improvement of the turbine installed using another design flow, this flow being 1.3 m³/s, the result obtained was 1,418.50 kW less than the old turbine. Thus, it was concluded that the study had positive results for three types of repowering and a negative result, being much lower than the power currently installed at the Curemas Plant. Finally, it is concluded that only one type was viable to solve the problem by reaching the need for power that the municipality of Coremas needs.