MODELING AND SIMULATION OF HYDROELECTRIC POWER PROJECTS: A CASE STUDY ON MULLAPERIYAR RESERVOIR

Water is one of the most precious resources available on Earth and it can be stored and used effectively. Large reservoirs are formed by building dams across flowing water, for storing water and allocating water for different purposes. Modeling of water storage in reservoirs will help us to plan effective usage of water allocation for different purposes like downstream irrigation, power production and domestic water requirement. Here we develop a mathematical model to estimate water storage. Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data from Bhuvan is processed in ArcMAP for delineation of watershed and reservoir region. Inflow to the reservoir is rainfall and outflow is for irrigation, power generation is included in the model. The study takes account of the reservoir capacity, flow rate of water and computation of water level at the reservoir. The simulations show that it successfully simulated the daily volume of water for the period 2005-2015. Predicting the available water in the reservoir is critical for planning and efficient use of water for different purposes.