Reducing the Carbon Footprint through a unique system design

FOR RECOVERING AND REUSING ENERGY AT OUR HYDRAULIC RESEARCH CENTRE

Each year, about 0.77 million units of electricity are consumed for the testing of pumps at the hydraulic research centre (HRC), Kirloskarvadi works. In the traditional method of pump testing, the operating point (head and flow) of a pump is simulated by artificially creating system resistance by throttling the flow control valve on the pump’s discharge pipe. The hydraulic energy produced by the pump (pressure head) is dissipated in overcoming the resistance offered by the valve. An energy

recovery system has been designed and installed at HRC to recover part of this energy, which would otherwise get

dissipated in the valve. This system consists of a pumpas-turbine (PaT) and Induction Motor as Generator (IMAG) chosen from the standard product lines of Kirloskar Brothers Limited (KBL). The energy recovery turbine is designed to produce a continuous power output of up to 100 kW during the testing of pumps. The electrical system is designed to feed the generated power back to the grid, but since the pump-under-test is the nearest load, the produced power gets consumed by the pump under test. Thus, the total power requirement during pump testing gets reduced by up to 100 kW. The estimated reduction in annual operating cost on account of reduction in the energy consumption shall be approximately INR 1.5 million, with the present frequency of testing on test-bed no. 1. Apart from the financial benefits, the energy recovery turbine will increase the share of renewable energy and thereby strengthen

KBL’s effort in conserving the environment. Presently, KBL produces about 27% of total energy requirements from renewable energy sources.

As described above, the hydro- turbine used in the energy recovery system is a pump operating in reverse mode. Though this technology is quite a mature one, it is observed that many customers have apprehension about this technology, especially regarding the control and power evacuation aspects. The system installed at Hydraulic Research Centre

(HRC) shall be accessible to all interested customers and visitors to experience the PaT and IMAG technology closely. We are confident that this experience will help spread this green, efficient and reliable technology worldwide and help reduce the carbon footprint of energy globally.