Feasibility study and design of micro hydro power plant (case study on meribo river, south eastern Oromia region, Ethiopia)

Abstract

Ethiopia has a huge renewable energy (micro-hydropower, solar PV and wind energy) potential that has not been used for rural electrification. The Ejersachumlugo village which has Ejersa and Chumlugo parts found at south east Ethiopia far 343km from Addis Ababa and not electrified. The specific studies area is Chumlugo part which far from the grid 15.6km on Meribo River. In this thesis, assessment of micro hydropower (MHP) potential of “Meribo River has been done. Some of the data needed has been gathered from Ministry of Water Irrigation and Energy of Ethiopia (MoWIE), central statistical Agency of Ethiopia and the rest is collected, measured from field work. Some part of the Local load estimation for the village has been done with lighting, cocking, radio and TV loads considered as home loads, clinic ,mosque and school lighting considered as general community loads. MATLAB software used for Modeling and simulating the general system of the village. The calculated result shows that the generated electricity is more enough to supply the local loads considered with the generated energy of 9.37kW.