Amazing How is electric power created?

In the search to produce electrical energy, hydraulic energy is used. The hydraulic energy obtained from the use of kinetic energies and the potential of the water current, waterfalls or tides.

It can be transformed to very different scales, there have been small farms for centuries in which the current of a river moves a rotor with blades and generates an applied movement, for example, in rural mills. However, the most significant use is the hydroelectric power plants.

Hydroelectric power station:

it is a facility where the potential energy (associated with height) and kinetic energy (associated with movement) is transformed into electrical energy. The water falls from the dam to turbines that are at its base. When receiving the force of the water the turbines begin to turn. The turbines are connected to generators, which when turning, produce electricity. The electricity travels from the generators to transformers, where the voltage rises to be able to transport the electricity to the consumption centers.

- Dam: Is responsible for cutting the water of a river and store it in a reservoir. With this construction a certain unevenness of the water that is used to get energy is achieved.

• Overflows: they are elements that allow to release part of the water that is retained without passing through the engine room.
• Energy destroyers: They are used to prevent the energy that the water that falls from the projections of a high-altitude dam from producing large erosions in the terrain.
• Water dams and pipes: The water supply to the turbines is made through a complex system of pipes.
• Valves: The valves are devices that allow to control and regulate the circulation of water through the pipes.
• Equilibrium chimneys: these are turbine pressure wells that are used to avoid the so-called water hammer that occurs when there is a sudden change in pressure due to the valves opening or closing quickly.
• House of machines: it is the construction where the machines are located, elements of regulation and control of the plant.
• Alternator: the alternator is a type of electric generator designed to transform mechanical energy into electrical.
• Hydraulic turbines.

What is a Turbine?:

The word Turbine is related to the vortex created by a fluid, it is understood as any mechanical device capable of converting into work, in the form of rotation movement, the kinetic energy present in water, steam or gas masses, since they are endowed of a certain speed of displacement.

Pelton turbine:

This turbine is defined as a turbine of action, tangential flow and partial intake. Operates more efficiently in conditions of large jumps, low flow rates and partial loads. They consist of a wheel (impeller or rotor) equipped with spoons in its periphery, which are specially made to convert the energy of a jet of water that falls on the spoons.

Kaplan turbines:

Kaplan turbines are used at heights of water falls of 7 to 60 meters, flow rates from 0.7 to 1000 m³ / s and power from 50 to 180,000 Kw. Between 1910 and 1918 the Austrian engineer Kaplan develops a turbine propeller with adjustable impeller blades, and that bears his name.

Francis turbine:

The Francis turbine is currently a typical hydraulic radial flow reaction turbine. They are known as overpressure turbines because the pressure in the areas of the impeller, or total admission, is variable since it is subject to the direct influence of water in all its periphery.

It is named in honor of the engineer James Bichano Francis (1815-1892), of English origin and who emigrated to the United States, where he was commissioned to carry out hydraulic projects using centripetal turbines.

In conclusion:

Currently, in most industrialized countries, hydraulic energy is used for the production of electric energy. As we have already mentioned, hydraulic energy takes advantage of the movement of water, that is, it converts the potential energy of water at a certain height into electrical energy. This energy transformation is achieved in a power plant.

It is very important to search for alternative sources of energy for the production of electric power since as time goes by, the proportion of conventional hydroelectric energy or that produced in hydroelectric power plants decreases as natural resources become exhausted and the demand for energy grows incessantly.

Currently the energy crisis has instigated the investigation of the so-called alternative sources of energy, among other.

Bibliographic references:

• Mataix, Claudio (1992) MECHANICS OF FLUIDS AND HYDRAULIC MACHINES second edition. Editions of the Castle. Madrid Spain

• www.monografias.com/trabajos73/sistemas-electronicos-venezolanos-energia-electrica/sistemas-electronicos-venezolanos-energia-electrica2.shtml

• http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbina_hidr%C3%A1ulica

• http://usuarios.multimania.es/jrcuenca/Spanish/Turbinas/turbinas_hidraulicas.html

• http://fluidos.eia.edu.co/hidraulica/articuloses/maquinashidraulicas/turbinashidraulicas/turbinashidraulicas.html

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