International workshop on 'Sediment Sensitive Operations in Hydropower Systems'

An international workshop on 'Sediment Sensitive Operations in Hydropower Systems' held on 11 to 17 February 2008 in Kathmandu , Nepal has been successfully completed. The workshop was jointly organized by Hydro Lab, Nepal and International centre for Hydropower (ICH), Norway . 20 participants from 7 different countries namely Bhutan , Guatemala , India , Kenya , Nepal , Sri Lanka , and Vietnam attended this workshop. The workshop programme included papers related to sediment management issues in hydropower plants, laboratory activities and field visit to a 60 MW Kulekhani Reservoir Project, which is about 30 km South-west of the capital city Kathmandu .

In the past, Hydro Lab organized two international workshops in Kathmandu . The first workshop was on, 'Sediment Management for Successful Hydropower Development' on 11-21 September 2001, and the second workshop was on 'Headworks Design in Steep Sediment-Loaded Rivers' held on 13-20 November 2005. This workshop was third on the series, which was focusing the sediment management issues in the operation of hydropower systems.

Experienced professionals from power companies, consulting firms, academic institutions and research organisation from Nepal and abroad shared their experiences on various topics in this workshop. The main topics of the lectures included the following:

1. Key note lecture on "Between Damage and Demand" related with sediment issues in hydropower plants.
2. Country presentations by the participants
3. Lessons learned from the operation of hydropower plants on sediment-loaded rivers in Nepal
4. Operation and maintenance of ROR-headworks in sediment-loaded rivers
5. Research on optimum sediment handling at ROR hydropower plants
6. Measurement of turbine efficiency
7. Sediment management and reservoir operation strategies
8. Research on sediment sensitive design of turbines
9. Operation and maintenance of turbines exposed to sediments
10. Improving sediment exclusion at existing RoR hydropower plants
11. Online sediment monitoring and operation of hydropower plants
12. Innovative solution for sediment exclusion in RoR hydropower plant

For more information and to register your interest, please send an e-mail to info@hydrolab.org

Organizers:
Hydro Lab Pvt. Ltd.		International Centre for Hydropower