IMPACT OF ECOLOGICALLY ACCEPTABLE FLOW ON FEASIBILITY OF SMALL HYDROPOWER PLANTS

The diploma thesis combines ecological, technical and economic requirements from European\ud and national legislation for designing small hydropower plants.\ud The first part shows the theoretical basis in the field of power production from SHP (small\ud hydropower plants). This basis contains environmental goals, the goals about increasing the\ud use of renewable energy sources, descriptions of the procedures for obtaining documentation\ud for the design and construction of SHP and the conditions about their construction and\ud operation. Special emphasis in this part is devoted to the requirements for calculating the\ud value of the EAF (Ecologically acceptable flow).\ud The second part describes SHP from a technical point of view. SHP facilities and their role in\ud the operation of the SHP sistem are defined. This part also describes the conditions of\ud choosing the appropriate mechanical and electrical equipment for SHP and solutions to\ud provide EAF.\ud The third, economic part of diploma thesis provides economic and financial requirements for\ud planning a SHP. This part defines the costs of special water use, the estimated investment\ud value of such a project and the guaranteed purchase prices of electricity (for the year 2009).\ud The last, practical part presents two SHP from the northern part of Primorska region: SHP\ud Plužna, operating since 1931 on the watercourse named Gljun and SHP Kneža, still in the\ud process of acquiring documentation for construction, on the watercourse named Kneža. This\ud part describes the natural features of the two brooks, defines the technical characteristics of\ud the two SHP, and shows the results of economic and financial analysis. This part also shows\ud the comparison of those analyses with different values of EAF. EAF values are once\ud calculated regarding the regulation for determining the EAF (Degree on ecologically\ud acceptable flow determination) and once taken from the study, ordered by the investor.\ud Economic and financial analyses were done by Smart Mini-Idro, a program in Microsoft\ud Excel