DOI: 10.29302/Pangeea 17.10

MICROELECTRIC POWER STATION- ECOLOGICAL DISASTERON MOUNTAIN RIVERS

Prof. SIMONA BONCUŢIU, prof. ADELA PLEŞA National College “Avram Iancu”, Câmpeni, Romania

ABSTRACT: The production of "green energy", meaning energy obtained fromrenewable resources, has also become a priority for Romania. According to the EuropeanUnion Directive, the Romanian state must secure over 20% of the required electricity, usingrenewable energy sources, by 2020. The legislation therefore permits, financing is abundant,and the country's energy potential is neither fully exploited. This may sound gratifying, butthe reality is quite different.

Keywords: microelectric power station; environment protection; flora; fish; constructionsites;

During 1896, the first combined hydroand thermal power plant in Romania was putinto operation on the Sadu Valley, calledSadu I. The old vertical shaft was replaced in1905 with a Francis turbine that operateduntil 1929.

The Microelectric Power Station (MHC)is a hydroelectric power plant with aninstalled capacity of less than 10 MW andcan be used to support a hostel, house orsmall factory. Most often, however, they areused to support the national electricity grid.They are located along the river, some of thewater being diverted through a duct anddirected to a coil. The energy obtained canbe used in mechanical processes (pumpingwater) or for an electric generator. Aninverter transmits power to the consumer ata voltage of 220 V or to a storage battery forstorage.

In Romania there is a high potential forhydroelectric power generation, about 36,000Gwh/year (Fig. 1). Although it is necessaryto develop as many micro-plants as possible,the lack of legislation regulatingconstruction conditions allowed developersof such projects to commit a series of seriouscrimes, while being protected by

well-informed environmental reports andreports to the point and properly grounded[1].

The problem lies in the way in which theriver capture and pipeline operations aredirected, without respecting the environ-mental norms in force and modifying theparameters specified in the projects (Fig. 2).

According to the environmental permitobtained for works, it is forbidden to degradethe bed and river banks as well as to modifyor reduce the water drainage section. Thewater drainage channel must be 0.5 metersabove the flood rate. It also mentions theprohibition to carry out work during themigration and reproduction period of the fishand during the period of prohibition of trout,loser or lean.

Also, the environmental pollution rules,which specify that the deposition of buildingmaterials on the soil, need to be avoided andwaterproofing with polyethylene film shouldbe avoided.

Oil leaks from machinery and river spillshave been spotted.

Changes to vegetation through abusivedeforestation, biodiversity reduction byhabitat segmentation and riverbed alteration

67Microelectric power station- ecological disaster on mountain rivers

(slope changes, deviation and evenobstruction of the watercourse, water loadingwith sediment and implicitly reducedoxygen) lead to severe changes in the naturalenvironment, impact being devastating.

Once destroyed, the natural environmentcan be rehabilitated ecologically but neverreturned to its original form. Therefore, itcan be said that any transformation isirreversible and with many, often unknown,consequences on the ecosystem.

The fauna may have the most to suffer.

Vibrations and noise pollution removeanimals, and in terms of fish fauna, this,given the conditions, is almost non-existent.Nowadays the trout (Salmo trutta) is alsoendangered, being almost impossible tomigrate over newly created dams, but alsowith the impossibility of natural restorationof the species, because the water flow in thebreeding area will be insufficient as long asthe area more than 90% of the multi-annualaverage flow of the rivers is captured (Fig.3).

Fig. 2. How to build a micro-hydro power plant

Fig. 1. Map of micro-hydropower projects in Romania

68 Simona Boncuţiu, Adela Pleşa

Water is swallowed by the undergroundpipeline, driven miles on the undergroundtrail, so there is a discontinuity with thenatural course of water. A flow of servitudeis not clearly delimited, so even the wholewater course or the like can be taken over.Even if he left an insignificant "flow ofservitude", he does not have the ability toreplace the naturally occurring naturalstream, which is now absorbed by the hugepipe. To be all the more beautiful, theconcrete has a fish scale that has one end onland, on which local fishes interested inwetlands will climb.

The ecological disaster, which threatensto slam the entire Carpathian chain, isparadoxically triggered by green energysources. As can be seen in the mapspresented (Fig. 1, 4), many of the micro-hydropower projects are located in theCarpathians, 26% of the points on the mapbeing superimposed on areas occupied byprotected areas, either SCI, SPA or Naturaland National Parks . If constructioncontinues in the way presented above, in afew years, these protected areas are no longerrelevant, as all valuable and endemic floraand fauna will disappear under the tracksand excavators of the great entrepreneurs,

militants of so-called green energy.In people-inhabited landscapes, natural

water courses are becoming less and morefragmented, polluted, more full of concrete(Fig. 5). The natural rivers have been largelykilled, their souls are broken down intoconcrete canals, docks of dams clogged withstinking mud, sprinkled with worn tires,piles of plastic bottles; if anyone ever opensone of those bottles, he will find every one ofhis balls, saying: “There was an aggressivesuicidal species here that was doingeverything to destroy the environment inwhich it could eventually persist”.

With the same amount of electricityproduced, a micro-hydropower plant has a5-8 times greater impact on biodiversitycompared to a dam hydropower plant. The"efficiency" of these investments is backedup by avoiding taking into account theirimpact on biodiversity ... and theculmination of irony, by funding greencertificates / perverse subsidies destroyingthe natural. It is like the "efficiency" of thedictatorial desertion of the Danube Delta andthe "rendering of agriculture" of formerlands formerly inhabited by sturgeons,fishermen and pelicans. A similar ecologicaldisaster.

Fig. 3. Fish affected by pollution

69Microelectric power station- ecological disaster on mountain rivers

The entire economic potential to bedeveloped must be achieved. Obviously, theprice per kW installed decreases frommegapotential to micropotential while thetotal cost of the investment increases fromthe micropotential to the megapotential.

Accordingly, the first element to beanalyzed is the economic side, taking intoaccount both the indicators and the financialstrength of the investor. Regarding thearrangement of the micro-potential for whichthe investment effort is small, the potential

Fig. 5. Construction in riverbed

Fig. 4. Map of micro-hydropower projects in Romania(overlapping on protected areas)

70 Simona Boncuţiu, Adela Pleşa

investor must consider three groups ofproblems: legal (who owns the watercourse,who owns the land that will be occupied bythe arrangement, carrying out negotiationsand contracts with the respective owners),economic (cost of investment, operatingcosts, maintenance, repairs, return price ofkWh, for discontinuous or seasonaloperations if there are required flows on theriver), technical the building of the buildingobjectives and the procurement, transportand installation of mechanical and electricalequipment) [2].

A special problem of small facilities isthe danger of clogging the hydrodynamiccircuit. If the course of the river is heavilypolluted with plastic containers for foodliquids (petals) and plastic foils, it is possiblethat the dump and drainage operations willcost more than the supplied energy. Thehigher the arrangement and the longer thesupply time of the larger grid, the morewaste disposal funds will be [3].

Another very important issue is thereliability of the equipment. Frequent andcostly repairs are key to the investment'sfailure. A first tip in this regard is theapproach of a company specialized inmanufacturing the necessary mechanical,hydraulic and electrical equipment.

On the other hand, the manufacturermust seriously consider increasing thereliability under the operation of theinstallation with low-skilled personnel. Weneed to emphasize that often themanufacturer does not have the necessaryexperience to do so. For an installation thatworks from time to time with the power of10 kW, we can not claim the beneficiary tohire mechanics and service technicians.Acquiring the necessary experience at themanufacturer can be achieved by makingpilot arrangements to be presented toprospective buyers. The operation of the pilotplant is absolutely necessary for knowing thefrequent failures and finding the economicsolutions to increase reliability. Ourrecommendation for potential individualinvestors is to buy equipment only frommanufacturers that can show them pilotinstallations, give them pertinent operatinginstructions and ensure that they intervenepromptly in the event of an accident. Itwould be interesting for both beneficiariesand producers to carry out periodicinspections provided by specialized teamsunder the producer's responsibility.Obviously, for the producer, the organizationof intervention teams is a puzzler they fear[4].

REFERENCES:

[1] Popa, F.; Paraschivescu, A.; Popa, B., (2006), Micropotenţialul hidroenergetic alRomâniei, A patra Conferinţă a hidroenergeticienilor din România, în memoria profesoruluiDorin Pavel, 26- 27 mai, Ed. Printech, Bucureşti, p.845-854. [2] *** UCMR, Hidroagregate de mică putere, tipuri şi listă de referinţă, iunie 2003. p.4.[3] Hoţa, I.; Bejan, I.; Zincescu, Gh.; Dorn W.; Mortoiu, G., (2006), Microhidroagregatecompacte în gama 10-100 kW dezvoltate la U.C.M. Reşiţa, A patra Conferinţă ahidroenergeticienilor din România, în memoria profesorului Dorin Pavel, 26-27 mai, Ed.Printech, Bucureşti, p.789-806.[4] Toader, S.; Iavornic, C., (2006), Minihidroagregate modulare în gama 1,1-10 MWdezvoltate de hydro-engineering, A patra Conferinţă a hidroenergeticienilor din România,în memoria profesorului Dorin Pavel, 26-27 mai, Ed. Printech, Bucureşti, p.807-824.