Working principle of Tidal power plants
Tide or wave is periodic rise and fall of water level of the sea. Tides
occur due to the attraction of sea water by the moon. Tides contain large
amount of potential energy which is used for power generation. When the
water is above the mean sea level, it is called flood tide. When the water level
is below the mean level it is called ebb tide.
Working
The arrangement of this system is shown in figure. The ocean tides rise and
fall and water can be stored during the rise period and it can be discharged
during fall. A dam is constructed separating the tidal basin from the sea and a
difference in water level is obtained between the basin and sea.
Figure: High tide
During high tide period, water flows from the sea into the tidal basin
through the water turbine. The height of tide is above that of tidal basin.
Hence the turbine unit operates and generates power, as it is directly coupled
to a generator.
During low tide period, water flows from tidal basin to sea, as the water level
in the basin is more than that of the tide in the sea. During this period also, the
flowing water rotates the turbine and generator power.
Figure : Low tide
The generation of power stops only when the sea level and the tidal
basin level are equal. For the generation of power economically using this
source of energy requires some minimum tide height and suitable site. Kislaya
power plant of 250 MW capacity in Russia and Rance power plant in France
are the only examples of this type of power plant.
Advantages of tidal power plants.
1. It is free from pollution as it does not use any fuel.
2. It is superior to hydro-power plant as it is totally independent of rain.
3. It improves the possibility of fish farming in the tidal basins and it
can provide recreation to visitors and holiday makers.
Disadvantages
1. Tidal power plants can be developed only if natural sites are available
on the bay.
2. As the sites are available on the bays which are always far away from
load centres, the power generated has to be transmitted to long
distances. This increases the transmission cost and transmission losses.
Different tidal power plants
The tidal power plants are generally classified on the basis of the
number of basins used for the power generation. They are further subdivided
as one-way or two-way system as per the cycle of operation for power
generation.
The classification is represented with the help of a line diagram as given
below.
Working of different tidal power plants
1. Single basin-one-way cycle
This is the simplest form of tidal power plant. In this system a basin is allowed
to get filled during flood tide and during the ebb tide, the water flows from the
basin to the sea passing through the turbine and generates power. The power
is available for a short duration ebb tide.
Figure: (a) Tidal region before construction of the power plant and tidal
variation
Figure: (b) Single basin, one –way tidal power plant
Figure (a) shows a single tide basin before the construction, of dam and
figure (b) shows the diagrammatic representation of a dam at the mouth of
the basin and power generating during the falling tide.
2. Single-basin two-way cycle
In this arrangement, power is generated both during flood tide as well as ebb
tide also. The power generation is also intermittent but generation period is
increased compared with one-way cycle. However, the peak obtained is less
than the one-way cycle. The arrangement of the basin and the power cycle is
shown in figure.
Figure: Single –basin two-way tidal power plant
The main difficulty with this arrangement, the same turbine must be
used as prime mover as ebb and tide flows pass through the turbine in
opposite directions. Variable pitch turbine and dual rotation generator are
used of such scheme.
3. Single –basin two-way cycle with pump storage
In this system, power is generated both during flood and ebb tides.
Complex machines capable of generating power and pumping the water in
either directions are used. A part of the energy produced is used for
introducing the difference in the water levels between the basin and sea at
any time of the tide and this is done by pumping water into the basin up or
down. The period of power production with this system is much longer than
the other two described earlier. The cycle of operation is shown in figure.
Figure: Single-basin, two-way tidal plant coupled with pump
storage system.
4. Double basin type
In this arrangement, the turbine is set up between the basins as shown in
figure. One basin is intermittently filled tide and other is intermittently
drained by the ebb tide. Therefore, a small capacity but continuous power is
made available with this system as shown in figure. The main disadvantages
of this system are that 50% of the potential energy is sacrificed in introducing
the variation in the water levels of the two basins.
5. Double basin with pumping
In this case, off peak power from the base load plant in a interconnected
transmission system is used either to pump the water up the high basin. Net
energy gain is possible with such a system if the pumping head is lower than
the basin-to-basin turbine generating head.
