Materials:

Our Turbine Case: Is constructed from laser cut 304 stainless steel which is TIG welded in our workshop in South Wales.

Our runners: Are made up of stainless buckets, cast using 17-4 PH alloy, and then heat treated to the H1075 condition after TIG welding.

Our Spear valves: Are fabricated from 304 SS (316 on request).

Our Manifolds: Are fabricated from SCH20 or SCH40 carbon steel, shot blasted and galvanised before painting.

Our Interconnecting pipes: Are usually HDPE with electro-fusion couplings fused in situ, or 304 SS on higher head schemes.

Our Warranty:

We provide Standard 1 year manufacturers warranty on all our parts and products.
An Optional extended 2 year warranty can be provided with the provision that the pipe is pigged before the turbine runs. Pigging the pipe is an extra service we are happy to provide alongside your installation, and is something that we recommend to ensure the smooth operation of your turbine. In addition, the turbine must be serviced by Hydrover, or a Hydrover approved specialist, at year 1 and year 2, which would end the warranty.
We will maintain the turbine annually if required.

Efficiency and Part Load:

Upon reading literature on micro hydro you will see that 50% overall efficiency is often suggested for schemes under 10kW. Hydrover Turbines have schemes under 10kW delivering ~75% water to wire efficiency. In addition, low standing losses mean that turbines can run down to very low part load, below 5% of design flow on multi jet machines. The actual efficiency achieved depends on the size of runner, number and size of jets and speed and efficiency of generator (small single phase generators having lower efficiency).

Each turbine is optimised to specific site requirements of head and flow. The lack of belt drive and or gearbox, coupled to high efficiency elliptical bucket designs means that excellent efficiency is possible even on very small machines.

Small grid connected machines of 5kW on 50m head will achieve~ 75% water to wire. A small 4 jet machine with 8 pole generator on low head will be around 70% water to wire. A 20kW scheme on 70m head with 3 phase connection may achieve near 80{%. Larger schemes can achieve over 80%.

Design:

Historically, medium and high head micro hydro has had a very limited range of equipment available and often a scheme design would ‘make the available turbine fit the application’. Often this resulted in sub-optimal scheme design. Our turbines are built specifically to suit the head and flow conditions of the site. We construct our turbines using a wide range of runners of varying size PCD, with multiple jet arrangements where necessary.

Using modern multipole induction generators we have a direct drive solution that has no compromise in the design. Subsequently we can achieve the type of efficiency expected for much larger schemes.

We provide an integrated turbine/generator/penstock connection/turbine house/tailrace design. Turbines are constructed in our workshop in South Wales.

Head and Flow Chart:

Head
This is based on the gross head measurements taken during the site survey, then we take into account head losses in pipework to produce an estimated net head which is used in our turbine sizing model.
We provide a realistic estimate of how the head varies across all flow rates.

Flow
Accurate flow estimates are a vital part of the feasibility study because it forms the basis of the performance and income predictions for the scheme.

Whenever possible we use the software to calculate accurate correction factors which can be applied to the nearest NRW/EA/SEPA gauging station data so that the estimated site flow data is based on real flow data. The results are presented as a site Flow Duration Curve and a summary table. This flow data can then be used during all of the subsequent discussions with the environmental regulator.

Turbine Sizing:

This is where experience really starts to count. A combination of head and flow is taken into account for each site, with maximum flow rate and flow range are selected to maximize generation.
Each turbine is entirely bespoke and is specified and designed to suit a specific site.