Increase of electric power production at the Khrami-I hydroelectric station by return of reservoir seepage water

Conclusions

• 1. With the existing regime of operating the reservoir of the Khrami-I hydrostation it is most advantageous to control losses of energy production due to seepage by pumping (from the lower level) with a discharge equal to or greater than the discharge of all seepage water with return of the pumped water to the reservoir or diversion tunnel.

• 2. The water being pumped should be stored in the reservoir not longer than 5–10 days, using it as needed for covering the peaks of the daily and weakly load curve of the power system.

• 3. On converting the reservoir operating regime to the design regime it is most advantageous to control production losses due to seepage by a combined method, consisting of a combination of cutoff measures on the reservoir banks (facings) with pumping of all seepage water into the reservoir or diversion tunnel.

• 4. Cutoff measures (facings) in the floodplain part of the reservoir of the Khrami-I hydrostation, being difficult to accomplish and insufficiently long-lived, in an economic respect are considerably inferior to a reduction of losses of energy production by the hydrostation attainable by groundwater pumping.

• 5. Groundwater pumping can be used for increasing the production of energy by other mountain hydrostations.