Estudio de Prefactibilidad de una Minicentral Hidroeléctrica en el río Alambí, en la zona de la “Hacienda Palmira”.

Abstract

The present titling work is about the Pre-feasibility study of a Mini Hydroelectric Power Plant in Alambí river, in the "Hacienda Palmira" area, located in the Nanegal parish of Quito canton, which seeks to identify potential sites for the construction of hydroelectric plants of up to 10 MW. This study is part of the research project "Hydroelectric Solutions for emerging and developing countries - HYPOSO" with code: PIE-DICA-UE-2019. For the present case study, three design alternatives were proposed, the first and the third seek to use the turbine flow of the Palmira power plant and the second, to capture the flow of the Tulipe River. To evaluate the viability of each of the alternatives, a reference budget was prepared based on various studies of similar projects, calculating the volumes of work and earthworks for each alternative. In addition to this, a code was developed in Matlab that allows calculating the energy generated based on a general duration curve and, consequently, the economic income generated. It is necessary to highlight that the design was carefully considerate the selection of the land for the location of the hydraulic plant, considering the viability of construction, the geology and the ease of access to the area. For the selection of the optimal alternative, a multi-criteria analysis matrix was developed, quantitatively evaluating the results of the hydrological, geological and environmental studies, financial indicators, cost per installed kW, viability of connection and ease of access, therefor identifying the best alternative.