What is Hydraulic Dam and Why Do We Use Them?

  The hydraulic dam is one of the best solutions for power generation, and it is also a renewable source.

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Runoff has long represented a major challenge for humanity, controlling fresh water was something that humanity from the beginning detected as essential for development. Today, with much more sophisticated systems, we are able not only to control the flows and masses of fresh water, but through a hydraulic dam, we are able to obtain different types of energy.

There are hydraulic dams dating from BC. C. approximately and, in ancient Mesopotamia. Initially these dams were built to store or divert water, intended for consumption and agriculture; but it is also well known that they were important maritime defense fronts. It was not until the 19th century that hydraulic dams began to be used for other purposes such as the drying of land, ship traffic, and the generation of electricity.

What exactly is a hydraulic dam?

Essentially, a hydraulic dam is an obstacle built on the perimeter of a river or lake in order to divert water or, on the contrary, impound it. They are mostly built in concrete, taking advantage of a closed or some gorge of the natural water basin, and allow to use or take advantage of the water that they manage to retain by obtaining electricity, in addition to offering control over it through different drainage mechanisms.

Relevant terms or parts

To understand how a hydraulic dam is composed, it is important to know the following terms and parts of it:

Reservoir: This is the name given to the total volume of water that is stored and retained by the dam.

Dam: it is the part of the dam that has the function of stopping the water, it can be created naturally or artificially.

Nozzle: is the delimited area, or not, where the dam is built. It is also known as closed.

Spleen: it is known as the land surface that functions as a reservoir, on which the entire volume of water is contained.

Spillway: it is a hydraulic structure that is inside the dam, its function is to eliminate the excess volume of water inside the reservoir.

Bottom drain: it is a structure, which is responsible for maintaining an ecological flow of water below the hydraulic dam.

Classification of electrical dams according to operation

We can identify three types of hydraulic dams according to their operation:

reservoir dam

This type of dam works by storing water in a reservoir, the water that is released from the reservoir flows through a rotating turbine, which produces electrical energy by activating a generator with the flow of water. It is the most common type of dam as it allows changing electricity needs to be met and the reservoir level to be easily regulated.

diversion dam

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It is characterized by being built in the middle of the flow of a river, contrary to reservoir dams, they are not capable of retaining a reservoir of water, instead it diverts the water towards a channel that can have various uses, including passing through electric generators to produce energy.

Pumped storage dams

This type of company works like a battery, which is capable of storing electricity generated by other energy sources external to the dam. It does this by pumping water uphill to a higher reservoir, and when that electricity is demanded, the water is lowered from the reservoir to drive the electricity-generating turbiness

Pumped storage dam. Iberdrola

Classification of electrical dams according to their size

There is a wide variety of hydraulic dams with different dimensions, but this classification, beyond being related to size, is closely linked to electricity generation capacity. Under this criterion, we can say that there are three types of hydraulic dams:

Giant hydraulic dam: defined as those facilities that can have a capacity of more than 30 MW.

Small hydraulic dam: are those dams capable of housing a generation close to 10 MW

Micro hydraulic dam: they are micro electric plants that have a capacity of around 100 kW, they are a small energy system that is only capable of producing electricity to supply private properties.

Today, hydraulic dams are a fundamental part of energy production systems around the world. In fact, it is consideredThe most important form of renewable energy production in the world, it currently covers about 20% of the world's electricity demand. We can say that its only disadvantage lies in its dependence on weather conditions.

What is Hydropower?

Hydropower, or hydroelectric power, is one of the oldest and largest sources of renewable energy. Hydropower uses the natural flow of moving water to generate electricity. Hydropower currently accounts for 27% of total U.S. utility-scale (electricity generated in large scales) renewable electricity generation and 5.7% of total U.S. utility-scale electricity generation. 

While the Hoover Dam may be one of the most recognizable hydropower plants in the world, hydropower facilities come in all shapes and sizes. Some may be very large, but they can be tiny, too, taking advantage of water flows in municipal water facilities or irrigation ditches. Facilities can even be ‘damless’ with diversions or run-of-river facilities that channel part of a stream through a powerhouse before the water rejoins the main river. Whatever the method, hydropower is easy to obtain and widely used. Some states, like Washington, rely heavily on hydropower sourcing about 60% of its electricity in from hydropower facilities.

Hydropower also plays a key role in keeping the grid stable. A study led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on hydropower flexibility found that the firm capacity, the guaranteed minimum amount of electric power a facility will be able to deliver, of U.S. hydropower facilities is estimated to be over 24 GW. This is enough to power between 16 to 24 million homes. To replace this capability with storage would require the construction of 24 GW of 10-hour storage facilities. Not only does this amount of storage—outside of hydropower facilities— not exist in the United States today but adding them to the grid could be costly and time consuming. 

What is the cost of Hydropower?

Hydropower is an affordable source of electricity. Hydropower harnesses power from a plentiful and easily accessible natural resource — moving water. States that get the majority of their electricity from hydropower, like Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, are able to lower energy bills for their residents.  

Compared to other electricity sources, hydropower also has relatively low costs throughout a project’s lifetime when including expenses such as maintenance, operations, and fuel. Like any major project, significant upfront costs are unavoidable. But hydropower’s longer lifespan (typically 65-85 years) and low operations and maintenance costs lower the average annual cost of facilities. This is due to the equipment used at hydropower facilities, which often operates for longer periods of time without needing replacements or repairs, saving money in the long term.

The installation costs for large hydropower facilities consist mostly of civil construction works (the building of the dams, tunnels, and other necessary infrastructure) and electromechanical equipment costs (electricity-generating machinery). Hydropower is a site-specific technology making it possible to minimize these costs at the planning stage through proper selection of location and design.

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