Developing water turbines for electric power generation

Partner Institutes
University of Southampton	NUST College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Rawalpindi

Pakistan’s electricity woes show no signs of abating. We have all become used to living at least a quarter of each day without power and unless someone somewhere wakes up to the fact that things will not get better without drastic action, we are headed towards an even darker future.

Fortunately, the University of Southampton in the UK and Pakistan’s NUST College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering have decided to come up with an alternative means of electricity generation.

Pakistan has one of the largest networks of canals, with five major rivers continuously flowing through its length all the year round. Given the current energy crisis, it makes sense to use the natural, renewable source that is readily available all over the country – water – and develop a cost-effective system of energy production.

The idea of the partnership is to develop water turbines along rivers, which will provide electricity to nearby villages and cities independently or will be integrated into the main grid depending upon the amount of electricity developed. 

The power created with this technology will be environment-friendly, as water turbines do not cause any contamination to the water that flows through them. Moreover, they make use of a renewable energy source and require very little maintenance.

One postgraduate and two undergraduate students at the two universities have aligned their final year research projects with the Strategic Partnership subject area. A significant success for the project has been the International Conference on Energy Systems Engineering organised by NUST in October 2010. The conference involved many stakeholders, donor agencies, researchers and students.

The successful implementation of this research will help improve the quality of life for the millions who have been adversely affected by power shortages.

Lessons learnt:

• The biggest advantage while working on this project was that the whole department including faculty and students contributed to make this project successful.
• The team also came up with innovative ideas like floating water wheels to meet the current energy needs of Pakistan

Challenges faced:

• Finding a suitable manufacturer for turbines in Pakistan was a major hurdle due to less number of industries in this domain. After a thorough evaluation process, Chitral Engineering Works was selected for this project.

Impact:

The project would;

• Achieve cost effective ways of generating power
• Form an International Fluid Mechanics Research Group
• Raise public awareness of renewable energy resources
• Provide a platform for future small scale renewable energy products in rural areas of Pakistan
• Facilitate futuristic partnerships between industries and universities

Key contacts:

Dr. Richard Wills, University of Southampton

rgaw@soton.ac.uk, www.soton.ac.uk

Dr. Waheed ul Haq Syed, NUST College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering

syedwaheed@ceme.edu.pk, www.ceme.edu.pk