Costs of Micro-Hydro Power Sites
Overview
Micro-Hydro Power (MHP) projects come along with a big variety of costs. Planning and developing a site brings a number of country, probalby regional specific costs. Similar to that are costs for operation and maintenance. All different cost categories play a role for individual projects, while big difference between countries due to different framework conditition might occur. A clear cost analysis upfront is highy recommended.
Cost factors are eventually:
a locations feasibility check by respective personal
land/water ownership/usage
civil construction (canal, wear, intake, pipes, powerhouse)
electro-mechanical equipment (turbine, generator, load controller)
power grid (evtl. transformers, powerlines, house-cabeling, load limiters, meter installation, ...)
opperation & maintenance (collecting tarrifs, running and maintaining the assets)
Some remarks regarding costs:
Land & water requirements are mostly small. But there may be interference with existing schemes (irrigation) or legal issues to be considered.
Order to delivery of electro-mechanical equipment may take half a year. Ensure to order in time.
Costs for power lines and household connections often require a substantial amount from the overall budged.
Any mhp scheme supplying a group of households has to install fixed procedures to cover operation & maintenance.
This includes the collection of tariffs from each user.
MHP costs in Rwanda
- in Rwanda in 2011 various cost categories for MHP were analysed.
- A special chapter about the management costs was developed, too.
