As we know, it is flowing water that creates the energy required to generate electricity. Wonder how it works?
Well, there is a huge amount of energy created from the falling of water. This energy is harnessed by forcing it through a pipe, which is called a penstock. At the end of the pipe, there is a turbine propeller. So, when water flows through the pipe, it reaches the propeller, and turns the blades of the turbine. This spins an electric generator. Hence, as long as water is flowing, the generator will be spun, and there will be electricity.
There are mainly three ways in which hydroelectric plants are designed.
The most common type follows a storage system. To put it clearly, there is a dam used in this system. It slows the flow of a river and stores the water in a reservoir above it. When needed, a portion of the water is released into the river flowing below the dam. The pressure thus created from the fall of water, spins turbine generators lying below. From this is created hydroelectricity.
Yet, another is the run-of-the-river system. Here, turbines are spun by the natural flow of the river.
The third type follows the pumped storage system. This is similar to the first type of storage system. But the difference is that it uses pumps to pump the used water back into the reservoir.
