Recapturing wasted energy in water pressure reducing valves via in-conduit hydropower generators

This paper models the water supply stations by establishing a laboratory scaled platform for investigating the in-conduit hydropower generators. An operation scheme is proposed to generate electricity from the wasted energy in the pressure reducing valves (PRVs). To maximize the generator efficiency, a control scheme is designed such that converting the wasted energy of pressure drop across the PRV to electricity does not affect the required water pressure and flow on the customer side. This scheme also preserves the generator from any damage by taking its operational range into consideration. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is evaluated by testing the experimental setup in a laboratory scaled platform for different flow and pressure scenarios.