Abstract
This paper presents the methodology to analyze flow duration characteristics and performance prediction technique for small hydro power(SHP) Plants and its application. The flow duration curve can be decided by using monthly rainfall data at the most of the SHP sites with no useful hydrological data. It was proved that the monthly rainfall data can be characterized by using the cumulative density function of Weibull distribution and Thiessen method were adopted to decide flow duration curve at SHP plants. And, the performance prediction technique has been studied and development. One SHP plant was selected and performance characteristics was analyzed by using the developed technique, Primary design specfications such as design flowrate, plant capacity, operational rate and annual electricity production for the SHP plant were estimated, It was found that the methodology developed in this study can be a useful tool to predict the performance of SHP plants and candidate sites in Korea.
