EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTS OF WEATHER VARIATION, CLIMATE CHANGE AND TIME ON THE HYDROELECTRIC POWER POTENTIAL OF A RIVER

Data on the rate of water discharge and head of a river is of critical importance to the determination of the hydroelectric potential of the river and these important quantities vary with climate change and time. When there is a long break in data collection of the flow rate of a river, researchers become skeptical about the authenticity of the old data for the determination of hydroelectric potential of the river. This paper evaluates the effects of climate change and time on the hydroelectric potential of Otammiri River over a period of 28 years (1984 to 2012). The evaluation is achieved by analyzing and comparing data for the river obtained from the hydrological department of Anambra Imo River Basin Development Authority (from 1984 to 1987) to the data taken from the river in 2012 by field experiments using the Valeports’ model 106 direct/self-recording current meter. Matlab software is used for the analysis and the variation is observed to be less than 5%.