Working of Hydroelectric Power Station

Now let’s roll, the process of hydropower energy in this case all starts at the dam, as i said earlier, a dam is a body of water that is not flowing, in other words it is a barrier constructed across a stream to impound water, thus, a dam can be said to be synonymous to a reservoir of water.
 Water in the dam is allowed to flow through pipes called penstock in a vertical plane , it is to be noted that there is a need for a difference in height between the dam and the other components of the plant. Each penstock has its own hitch gate at the top to stop water flow for maintenance or during emergency. i.e. to control water flow. At the end of the penstock is the scroll case , which is designed to create a consistent pressure of water entering the turbine from all sides. Inside the scroll case is a set of veins known as the wicket gate. The wicket gates are controlled by a governor system which closes and opens them in response to the condition at the national grid, this means that a higher load on the system opens the wicket gate and a lower load on the system gradually shuts the wicket gate.The turbine blades transmits the rotational motion to a shaft known as the runner which in turn transmits to the generator. The generator at this point is not the same as the domestic generator, though they both work with the same principle, the principle of electromagnetism, just that the rotational motion in the domestic generator is gotten from the piston effect which is sourced from burning fossil fuel i.e. petrol, contrarily, the rotational motion in this plant is sourced from water which drives the turbine to turn kinetic energy to mechanical energy. 

The generator then uses the principle of electromagnetic induction to turn the mechanical energy developed by the turbine to a three phase alternating current which is Electrical energy; this connects to the national grid and then subsequently gets transmitted and distributed via transmission and distribution lines respectively, and that’s how you get power at your homes and offices for both domestic and industrial uses.