Feasibility and analysis of Tidal Power Plant

Amir shahbaz*, Muhammad asif and Mujeeb-ur-Rehman

*
amirshahbaza@yahoo.com, masifmalik28@gmail.com, mujeeburehman1992@hotmail.com
*
Electrical department, Bahria university Karachi campus

Abstract. In this study we tried to highlight events and

difficulties to construct tidal power plant and their simple
solutions. The design for gharo tidal power plant is described.
Gharo tidal power plant can be first experiment in tidal industry.
This experiment gives understanding of required techniques to
construct larger tidal power plant. the bulb turbine can be used
in real site and its all parameters like generator and propeller
design.. In this study we want to give some observed and
calculated data of gharo creek. In this study we assumed the
efficiency of our plant is 30% . Gharo tidal power plant if
installed can fulfil the requirement of more than 30 lack houses.
This will be great achievement for Pakistan. As our country
facing huge energy crises. We have to move toward renewable
and green energy.

I. INTRODUCTION Fig.2: Empty gharo creek (hypack software)

Tides are produced due to the orbital motion of solar
system[1].The potential difference occurred due to the tidal
movement. Tides are produced due to the rotation of earth
around the sun which causes centrifugal forces and attraction
forces[2]. Tides are most uniformly occurring energy in ocean.
There are different methods to predict tides such as by using
formula[1] and online predicted tide softwares are available[2].
It is not mention why tides are produced because it is natural
process[1]. Consecutively two high and two low tides Fig.3: Gharo image of old bridge
occurred[2]. We are presenting specification of gharo creek We measure the length of Gharo old bridge is 60 meter and
but there are many different small tidal creeks are available there is possibility of installing 30 to 42 turbines in a
which can be used to harness tidal energy such as Bachiar horizontal row.The diameter of volume displacement path is
creek, War creek,Kajhar creek , sonmiani creek , gharo creek , 1.2 meter because the average tidal range at gharo creek is 3.5
sonmiani[3] . meter[3]and according to our observation the depth of creek
This creek is located near gharo city .The bhambhore under bridge is 4.8 meter[3]so there are enough places to
museum is located on gharo creek. Gharo creek is a tidal creek install at least 1.5 meter diameter turbine at centre of bridge.
its co ordinates are 24 44 N and 67 44[3].The standard
elevation of gharo creek is 1 meter from port qasim.The A. Cleaning and dredging requirements
average tidal range at port Qasim is 4.5[3] so the tidal Creek is filled with lots of silt and mud[3]. To have a
potential at gharo creek will be 3.5 meter[3].The standard time perfect water path under bridge we need to clear and clean this
zone is UTC /GMT +5[3]. In this fig.1 point A shows suitable material so that turbines can fit easily
location for gharo tidal power plant.
A
60 meter

Fig.1: suitable location for tidal power plant

15 meter
II. REQUIREMENTS AND TECHNIQUES
We only need to make concrete structure which is very help
full to support turbines. The presence of large pillars can be
more useful to assemble the concrete structure because it is
situated on the creek. With less engineering work we can Fig.4: Old Bridge dimensions after dredging
implement our turbine structures in a row having bulb turbine
in it.
 graphic survey. The few names are listed here Software:
Hypack, Hysweep, Hydro pro, Tide prediction etc.
Hardware: Echo sounder (bathy 500), GPS (Garmin H72),
laptop (hydro graphic software), Electronic Tide gauge Etc.

C. Cross sectional view of gharo creek

Fig.5: require depth before installation of turbine
In figure 6 blue colours represents water at low tide. This
picture is a result of observed depth of gharo creek.There is an
option in hypack through which user can enter manual depth
and GPS co ordinate .tin modelling give us final result shown
in figure.

III. EXPERIMENTAL READINGS Blue colour represents low water in creek

This creek is located in Sindh with area of 2.228 kilometre
square (Google earth) and it is located near gharo city.The
creek is 9 km long (Google earth) and maximum of 80 meter
(Google earth) wide.The observed tidal range is 3.2 meter.The
weather of the creek is moist and the speed of water before
installing turbine is approximately 0.41 m/s (observed).
Many methods are useful but we are using an easiest one
for volume calculation .In this method we are using a bamboo Fig.6: 3d view of Gharo creek low tide (hypack software)
which have marking on it with the increment of 0.1 meter.We
have used a map which has marked points each mark point is
separated with a distance of 30 meter.By using GPS we find
and adjust the actual co ordinates (latitude and longitude) of
the mark point .By using this technique different depth
reading can be taken at different places.Then the map can be
filled with manual depth entries.We can find the actual
volume of the creek this volume can be very useful for tidal
project.Mark different areas in the creek and take physical
reading and put average depth and multiply this with
estimated depth we can calculate volume of that area.Then
add different volumes. Fig7 : 3d view of turbine installation
Volume= (Area 1x depth 1) + (area 2 x depth 2)....... (1)
Regular tide recording is compulsory during depth record D. D. Tidal potential
after survey minus all the tide values with respect to time.We Tidal potential can be obtained using formula [4]
measure the speed of water at Gharo by marking a distance of E = Agh (3)
100 meter then a cork is thrown in the water so we know the 2
time of completing distance.we took several reading and then E is single output potential A is area of creek h is tidal range
take an average of root mean square value There are two high and two low tides occurred daily
Speed of water = distance (2) Total potential = single potential x 2 (4)
Time There are 86400 sec in a day so mean power generation can be
evaluated with this equation.
A. Tide recording for tidal range Mean power generation= total potential /time (86400 sec) (5)
Tide gauge can be form by making marks on wooden strip. average power generation can be find by multiplying
Chart datum were found by 30 days observations.For mechanical to electrical efficiency .here we assume the
observing tides to mark chart datum takes reading after every efficiency is 30 %.
15 minutes the lowest reading of that month recording will be Average power=mean power generation x 0.30 (6)
the chart datum for that site. TABLE 1
We can get predicted tide readings on internet[2]. Different Gharo tidal potential at 30 % efficiency
softwares are available to get tide readings.We need to put Tidal height Volume displacement Output power
latitude and longitude of that creek. 1 meter 2228000 m 0.07MW
B. Advance methods 2 meter 4456000m 0.31MW
There are many advance methods for survey, 3 meter 6684000m 0.74 MW
hydrographers use these software and Hardware in hydro 4 meter 8912000m 1.24MW
5 meter 11140000m 1.94MW
 IV. BULB TURBINE DESIGN FOR GHARO
This turbine is used for low head tidal power plant
because it has a built en generator[5] .The disadvantage for
this type of turbine is maintenance. Because it is covered with
water and difficult to install and uninstall. Bulb turbines are
capable to generate electricity when the creek is full and
emptied .bulb turbine is also suitable for low head hydro
power plant. Blades of bulb type turbine can change direction
as the speed of water changes. These blades can be controlled
through PLC (programmable logic controller), FPGA (field
programmable logic array), Raspberry pi or microcontroller
(pic).The blades of turbine can be adjusted according to the
speed of water .so that generator can get the constant speed.
Microcontroller Stepper
Measure check speed of motor adjust
speed water and adjust angle of blade
blades of turbine accordingly
Fig.8: turbine blade schematics
Pressure exerted on turbine is due to the water height and
the area of creek .the total pressure is equal to pressure plus
atmospheric pressure
Pressure = density x g xh
area of turbine
The water exert force on turbine F and the radius of turbine r
by using this we can calculate the torque produced due to the
kinetic energy so
Torque = force x radius of turbine
Force = density x area of basin x gravity x tidal height
Torque = density x radius of turbine x area of basin x gravity
x tidal range
Whereas the produced torque is
Torque= mass of turbine x radius of turbine x angular
velocity of turbine
Angular velocity = (ghA/mr)1/2 (12)
Speed = 2 radius of turbine (13)
Time for one rotation
Now we get the actual speed of turbine in m/s.
Now we have found the actual rotation per minute by using
above formula .now we want to calculate the gearing ratio to
match the generator speed. Now we can calculate the actual
rotation per minute of rotor
By taking this into account we can calculate the actual
frequency of generated voltage.Now we can calculate the
required poles of generator that we should use in over model
Poles = frequency of electrical wave x 120
Speed of turbine
No of pole will decide the radius of bulb turbine and the
required gearing in the turbine
Frequency = 1/time taken to complete one electrical pulse (15)
We can get good results after assuming different values and
lots of iterations. Generator converts mechanical energy to
electrical energy using phenomena of electromagnetic
induction
Rate of change of magnetic flux through the copper coil of
wire or winding will produce electro motive force. The electro
motive force depends on speed of rotor, number of winding or
turns and the magnetic field .According to our design and
calculation the average speed of the turbine will be 60 RPM
= - N (16)
t
is electromotive force N is number of turns of coil and
is change in magnetic flux.
By using above formula we can deduce the formula for
exact no of turns of the coil and the no of coil used in the
generator
Voltages = (#phase) n NAB (17)
t
# phase means no of phases, N is no coils per phase
n is no of turns of coil ,A is the area of coil (m),B is
magnetic field (teslas) and t is time required to cut one
magnetic field.
Because our design of generator is the permanent magnets
can face the coils so that the magnet field changes per magnet
and induces voltages in the coils.
If we assume the rotation of our turbine is 60 RPM
so after gearing we will get the 2.5:1 ratio speed which will be
equal to 150 RPM .Therefore by putting assumed values in
above formula we can find the no of poles required to
(7) generate frequency of 60 Hz by putting above values we get
+the number of poles of generator is 24. Our plane is to make
a 24 pole generator because the size of bulb is ideal .Placing
24 magnets in it each magnet will acquire the space of 15
degrees. By using 16 gauge wire 13.2 ohms resistance per
(8) 1000 meter and the diameter of 16 gauge wire is 0.05 inches[7]
(9) we can make a less resistive coils and each coil has assume 60
turns[5]. There are 6 coils per phase total of 18 coils .When
(10) the guage of wire decreases the current capability increases
and diameter of wire is also increase. The diameter of 16
gauge wire is 0.0508 inches[7] and the current capability is 22
(11) A to increase the current flow the gauge of wire will decreases
to 6 and its diameter is 0.16 inches and the current capability
is 101 Amperes so using this information we can conclude
that a low resistance wire have less resistance so it can
produce maximum power output .The width of the coil is 8 cm
where as the length can vary according to the size of stator
here we assume the height of stator is 30 cm (it can vary 30cm
to 50 cm) by using 30 cm the area of coil will be 0.0015 m
and the height of coil should be as small as possible[7] .
The permanent magnets used for this type of generator are
Ne55 or Ne 52 .These are neudeneum magnets having magnet
field of 1.3 TESLA to 1.5 TESLA[6] .
(14) The time taken for winding to cut the magnetic field lines can
be find through the equation rotation per sec/ no of poles so by
putting these values in equation we found the value 41.29
volts. We can calculate current by dividing with the resistance
of the wire the desired outcome of voltages can be found
 TABLE 2
Estimated time required to complete gharo project
Required time
Events
(estimate)
Tide recording (important during 4 month
half moon and full moon )
Survey + tide recording 3 month
Dredging +tide recording 5 month
Structure installation +tide 3 month
Installation of turbine 4 month
Building Grid station 3 month
Fig.9: Generator dimensions
Rotor Transmission line 5 month
60 cm Testing period 3 month
Total time 3year 6 month

Stator TABLE 3
70 cm Initial investment for gharo tidal project
S .no Equipment Estimated cost
1 Hydro graphic survey 10,00,000
2 Dredging and cleanining 80,00,000
3 Break water 100,00,000
Fig.10: Generator dimensions 4 Bulb turbine 87,00,000
5 Grid station 8,00,000
6 Transmission line 60,00,000
7 Transportation cost 40,00,000
8 Miscellaneous 15,00,000
Total cost 400,00,000

A. Alternative design
There is an alternative method which can be much more cost
effective. By using worm gear instead of bulb turbine, turbine
shaft can be changed from horizontal to vertical shaft and
connected to the generator.
Fig.11:3d design for Bulb type turbine with holding assembly
V. RECOMMENDED DESIGN Generator mounted vertically downward
In future we can upgrade our system to improve the output
from this tidal creek by increasing the number of poles of
generator to 24 or an alternative method can be adopted to
increase the number of generators. When we increase the Bridge
number of generator in the bulb type turbine the required
torque will be increased and the number of RPM will reduced
to half. It is very good to increase the diameter of bulb so can
a 48 pole generator can work properly.

Width of bridge is 1 meter

Fig.13: creek crossectional view in alternative method

Turbine
Fig.12: Bulb turbine measurements with respect to structure
B. Advantages of this design
In tidal power generation bulb type turbine is very expensive
because of this we are using this alternate method. This design
can be used for initial construction to prove tidal power is not
a wastage of money. Instead of using bulb turbine we are
using worm gear which will be vertically upward and attached
to generator. This design is easy to maintain install and un
install. Generators are vertically downward mounted so there REFERENCE
will be no need of using expensive water tight bulb. In this [1] Cantenpaur tidal En peter rebica laurene nov 2013
design we can use 1.2 diameter pipes for holding propeller [2] http://tides.mobilegeographics.com/
assembly and worm gear cuboid structures will be required as [3] P. j harison, M.saleemNutrient and phytoplankton
explained earlier. To get required number of RPM of propeller dynamics in two mangrove tidal creeks of the Indus
we can use calculated worm gear. Water potential will be River delta,http://www.int-
remain constant throughout the pipe which helps for stream es.com/articles/meps/157/m157p013.pdf
line water action on propeller. [4] Prof. Stephen Lawrence, University of Colorado,
Bulb is special types of turbine which is manufactured by Boulder: Presentation on Oceanic Energy.
only few companies in world[1]. Those companies which are [5] Afzal ahmed ,jameel ahmed khan Design
producing bulb turbines are producing very large turbines for consideration and tidal power from sonmiani
the actual sites which are very costly. bay,research paper
[6] Wayne M. Saslow, Electricity, Magnetism, and
VI. DISCUSSION Light, Academic (2002)
Using above data we can calculate all the required [7] Mark Lund, PowerStream Inc., American Wire
parameters for tidal power plant .The efficiency of turbine and Gauge table and AWG Electrical Current Load
generator can be upgraded to 90% this will increase the output Limits, retrieved 2008-05-02 (although the ft/m
power to transmission lines .The design of blades are also conversion seems slightly erroneous)
important aspect because in tidal power there is very low head.
In future tidal energy will be the most demanding renewable
energy resource but in our country we are ignoring it .This is
the most predictable and safest to harness energy[4]. Tidal
energy is useful when the proper installation of turbine and the
assembling of generator take place these are the two major
events. Tidal energy is depend on the potential difference
occurred due to the motion of water from high potential to low
potential
Two Electronic tide gauge can be used to get tidal range of
creek and sea . To create some potential difference between
sea and creek. This can open and close gates of turbine
automatically by difference of 0.2 meter this will increase
efficiency as shown in fig.6
Harnessing tidal energy can effect fishes and mangroves,
Gharo site is selected because the presence of small fishes in
it[3].The blades of Bulb turbine can damage small
fishes.Gharo creek has no transportation on water.

VII. CONCLUSION
The available power output from gharo creek is 1 MW.
This potential is enough for gharo city .Assuming the average
power consumption of single house is 1 kilo Watt hour. The
consumption for one house is 0.28 watt/sec. Gharo creek can
fulfil the requirements of 3,500,000 houses. Assuming Per
unit cost in Pakistan is 9 Rs. The consumption of one kilowatt
for 18 hours so the average consumption for one house will be
18 kilo watt hour. The bill for single house will be 48600 Rs
per year. The expected annual output from gharo creek will be
170 billion Rs. This will be great achievement for Pakistan.
We can increase the efficiency of mechanical to electrical
conversion up to 70 %. There are some modern design
implementation of bulb turbine. By using different generator
and turbine configuration.