Journal of Mechatronics, Electrical Power, and Vehicular Technology

There is a lot of untapped potential for low-head and very low-head (VLH) hydroelectric power in Indonesia. The challenge in developing VLH is that the locations are very difficult to access by vehicle. One example is in the interior of South Kalimantan Province, where it takes more than 12 hours to reach the location on foot. This paper discusses an experimental study of a pico hydro propeller turbine prototype for VLH applications which is suitable for use in remote areas of Indonesia. Its design is simple and lightweight, and it is made from PVC. The turbine's specifications include a power output of 250 W with a net head of 1.53 m. The turbine was designed with four different runner models, including variations in the number of blades and their geometric shapes. The runner models are type 1 and 2 with five and four blades, respectively, and type 3 (in a shallow configuration) and type 4 (in a steep configuration) with 3 blades. The generator used was a DC, 36 V, with a maximum power of 500 W, 2,500 rpm, and 1 phase. An AC lamp was used as the generator load, so an inverter from DC to AC was used in this test. The propeller turbine was tested in the laboratory. The experiments were conducted at various flow rates by adjusting the rotational speed of the supply pump and the electrical load using incandescent lamps. The test results are presented as graphs showing the relationship between flow rate and rotational speed, hydraulic and electrical power, and efficiency. The experimental results indicate that the turbine with a type 3 runner model featuring three blades in a gentle slope configuration has the highest efficiency, approximately 72.5 %.

renewable energy; hydro power; propeller turbine design; flat flow stream; water turbine runner.

W. M. Tefera and K. S. Kasiviswanathan, “A global-scale hydropower potential assessment and feasibility evaluations,” Water Resour. Econ., vol. 38, no. July 2021, p. 100198, 2022.

International Hydropower Association, “2021 hydropower status report: Sector trends and insights,” 2021.

M. Technologies, “VLH Turbine,” MJ2 Technologies S.A.S. [Online]. [Accessed: Dec. 12, 2023].

E. Quaranta, A. Bahreini, A. Riasi, and R. Revelli, “The very low head turbine for hydropower generation in existing hydraulic infrastructures: State of the art and future challenges,” Sustain. Energy Technol. Assessments, vol. 51, no. June 2021, p. 101924, 2022.

E. Quaranta et al., “Hydropower case study collection: Innovative low head and ecologically improved turbines, hydropower in existing infrastructures, hydropeaking reduction, digitalization and governing systems,” Sustain., vol. 12, no. 21, pp. 1–79, 2020.

T. L. Oladosu and O. A. Koya, “Numerical analysis of lift-based in-pipe turbine for predicting hydropower harnessing potential in selected water distribution networks for waterlines optimization,” Eng. Sci. Technol. an Int. J., vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 672–678, 2018.

P. Punys, A. Kvaraciejus, A. Dumbrauskas, L. Šilinis, and B. Popa, “An assessment of micro-hydropower potential at historic watermill, weir, and non-powered dam sites in selected EU countries,” Renew. Energy, vol. 133, pp. 1108–1123, 2019.

E. Gallego, A. Rubio-Clemente, J. Pineda, L. Velásquez, and E. Chica, “Experimental analysis on the performance of a pico-hydro Turgo turbine,” J. King Saud Univ. - Eng. Sci., vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 266–275, 2021.

I. Syofii et al., “Feasibility of pico scale turgo turbine blade manufacturing method using three-dimension printer technology,” J. Adv. Res. Fluid Mech. Therm. Sci., vol. 107, no. 1, pp. 190–201, 2023.

I. Syofii, A. B. Hidayatullah, D. Adanta, D. P. Sari, F. Burlian, and M. A. A. Saputra, “Pico scale turgo turbine design for remote areas application using velocity triangle approach,” J. Adv. Res. Fluid Mech. Therm. Sci., vol. 97, no. 1, pp. 157–167, 2022.

D. Adanta, I. Syofii, D. P. Sari, and A. Wiyono, “Performance of pico scale turgo turbine in difference the nozzle diameter,” vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 10-136, 2022.

D. Zhou et al., “Development of an ultra-low head siphon hydro turbine using computational fluid dynamics,” Energy, vol. 181, pp. 43–50, Aug. 2019.

S. Mejiartono, M. F. Hikmawan, and A. S. Nugraha, “Numerical and experimental study of mixed flow pump as turbine for remote rural micro hydro power plant application,” J. Mechatronics, Electr. Power, Veh. Technol., vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 125–136, 2022.

Q. M. B. Soesanto, P. Widiyanto, A. Susatyo, and E. Yazid, “Cascade optimization of an axial-flow hydraulic turbine type propeller by a genetic algorithm,” Int. J. Technol., vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 200–211, 2019.

M. H. S. Haghighi, S. M. Mirghavami, S. F. Chini, and A. Riasi, “Developing a method to design and simulation of a very low head axial turbine with adjustable rotor blades,” Renew. Energy, vol. 135, pp. 266–276, 2019.

H. Hoghooghi, M. Durali, and A. Kashef, “A new low-cost swirler for axial micro hydro turbines of low head potential,” Renew. Energy, vol. 128, pp. 375–390, May 2018.

I. I. Novendra, I. M. Wirawan, A. Kusumawardana, and A. K. Latt, “Optimization of load frequency control using grey wolf optimizer in micro hydro power plants,” J. Mechatronics, Electr. Power, Veh. Technol., vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 166–176, 2023.

M. R. Djalal, H. Setiadi, and A. Imran, “Frequency stability improvement of micro hydro power system using hybrid SMES and CES based on Cuckoo search algorithm,” J. Mechatronics, Electr. Power, Veh. Technol., vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 76–84, 2017.

T. Sudsuansee, S. Phitaksurachai, R. Pan-Aram, N. Sritrakul, and Y. Tiaple, “Design and hydrodynamic performance of low head propeller hydro turbine for wide range high efficiency operation,” Int. J. Thermofluids, vol. 27, no. April, p. 101228, 2025.

P. Sritram, W. Treedet, and R. Suntivarakorn, “Effect of turbine materials on power generation efficiency from free water vortex hydro power plant,” in IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, Institute of Physics Publishing, Dec. 2015.

J. Rohmer, D. Knittel, G. Sturtzer, D. Flieller, and J. Renaud, “Modeling and experimental results of an Archimedes screw turbine,” Renew. Energy, vol. 94, pp. 136–146, Aug. 2016.

J. Butchers, J. Cox, S. Williamson, J. Booker, and B. Gautam, “Design for localisation: A case study in the development and implementation of a low head propeller turbine in Nepal,” Dev. Eng., vol. 5, no. January, p. 100051, 2020.

E. E. Lust, K. A. Flack, and L. Luznik, “Survey of the near wake of an axial-flow hydrokinetic turbine in quiescent conditions,” Renew. Energy, vol. 129, pp. 92–101, 2018.

D. A. Ghaniy, P. Sutikno, and P. Widiyanto, “Performance test of axial turbine-generator magnet permanent on-grid system prototype for very low head application,” AIP Conf. Proc., vol. 1984, no. July, 2018.

J. J. Martinez et al., “Characterization of a siphon turbine to accelerate low-head hydropower deployment,” J. Clean. Prod., vol. 210, pp. 35–42, 2019.

M. Johansson and T. O’Doherty, “Feasibility of micro-hydro schemes in South Glamorgan, Wales,” Energy Procedia, vol. 142, pp. 309–314, 2017.

D. Adanta, Budiarso, and Warjito, “The effect of channel slope angle on breastshot waterwheel turbine performance by numerical method,” Energy Reports, vol. 6, pp. 606–610, 2020.

Turbulent, “Hydroelectric turbines for green, decentralized energy,” Turbulent. [Online] [Accessed: Jan. 16, 2024].

L. Velásquez, A. Posada, and E. Chica, “Surrogate modeling method for multi-objective optimization of the inlet channel and the basin of a gravitational water vortex hydraulic turbine,” Appl. Energy, vol. 330, no. PB, p. 120357, 2023.

D. S. Edirisinghe, H. S. Yang, S. D. G. S. P. Gunawardane, and Y. H. Lee, “Enhancing the performance of gravitational water vortex turbine by flow simulation analysis,” Renew. Energy, vol. 194, pp. 163–180, 2022.

A. B. Timilsina, S. Mulligan, and T. R. Bajracharya, “Water vortex hydropower technology: a state-of-the-art review of developmental trends,” Clean Technol. Environ. Policy, vol. 20, no. 8, pp. 1737–1760, Oct. 2018.

P. Sritram and R. Suntivarakorn, “Comparative study of small hydropower turbine efficiency at low head water,” in Energy Procedia, Elsevier Ltd, pp. 646–650, 2017.

J. Titus and Bakthavatsalam Ayalur, “Design and fabrication of in-line turbine for pico hydro energy recovery in treated sewage water distribution line,” in Energy Procedia, Elsevier Ltd, pp. 133–138, 2019.

A. S. Saleem, Rizwanullah, and T. A. Cheema, “Experimental investigation of various blade configurations of gravitational water vortex turbine (GWVT),” in Proc. of the 4rth International Conference on Power Generation Systems and Renewable Energy Technologies (PGSRET), IEEE, 2018.

Y. Bai, F. Kong, S. Yang, K. Chen, and T. Dai, “Effect of blade wrap angle in hydraulic turbine with forward-curved blades,” Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, vol. 42, no. 29, pp. 18709–18717, Jul. 2017.

S. Phitaksurachai, R. Pan-Aram, N. Sritrakul, and Y. Tiaple, “Performance testing of low head small hydro power development in Thailand,” Energy Procedia, vol. 138, pp. 1140–1146, 2017.