Small hydropower — design, construction, operation
Hydropower without flooding land.
Design, construction and operation of small hydropower plants (SHP): modular low‑head solutions — with no reservoir and no land acquisition.
of the plant, up to
10–15 years conventionally
overflow weir, up to
for a reservoir
These figures follow from the modular solutions and depend on the conditions of the particular site and watercourse.
// The key difference
Hydropower that stays inside the river channel
Three properties carry the whole approach: a modular overflow weir working at low head, generating units that need no dam, and land that is never taken out of use.
// 01 — Impoundment
Head of up to 5 m
The modular overflow weir works at low head — the backwater stays within the river channel.
// 02 — Generating
No dam required
In‑stream, vortex and containerised units; a diversion or bypass channel.
// 03 — Land
Land stays in use
With no reservoir there is no land acquisition and no resettlement.
A reservoir is a scope item, not a side effect.
Conventional impoundment stores water above the natural channel. That single decision opens its own scope: land to acquire across the flooded area, people to resettle, an embankment or concrete dam to build as the impoundment front, and a separate sectional spillway with hydromechanical equipment to operate it.
A modular overflow weir working at up to 5 m of head holds the backwater inside the channel. None of those items are opened, because there is nothing above the channel to hold.
The backwater stays inside the banks the river already occupies. No land is taken, and nobody is resettled.
The head is bought by raising water over the surrounding land. The reservoir has to be acquired, cleared and, where people live, resettled.
−40% of construction cost, 80% of the work done in a factory
Four figures follow from the modular solutions. Each of them moves because a structure has been removed at the design stage, not because a supplier has been squeezed.
These figures follow from the modular solutions and depend on the conditions of the particular site and watercourse. For conventional solutions the payback period is 10–15 years.
The cost comes out at the design stage, not on site.
Four decisions, taken before anything is built, account for the difference. Each one removes a structure or a system that a conventional scheme has to design, construct, maintain and staff.
Operating costs fall with them: modular, standardised equipment is what a small hydropower plant is maintained and staffed against across its whole life cycle.
for a conventional design
Design in up to 1 year. Payback in 3 to 6.
Delivery timeline and payback — the proposed approach against a conventional approach for the same site. All six bars are drawn on one axis, 0 to 15 years, so the two approaches can be read against each other rather than each against itself.
Design
1 Design — up to 1 year, depending on watercourse conditions at the site; excluding the time taken by technical review.
Construction
2 Construction — 1 to 3 years, depending on watercourse conditions and the size of the site.
Payback
3 Payback — 3 to 6 years, depending on the hydrological conditions of the site and the capacity generated (against 10 to 15 years with conventional design).
Design, construction and operation — all three stages in one company
The company specialises in the design, construction and operation of small hydropower plants. The objective is set across the whole life cycle, not at handover.
Lower cost of ownership
Across the whole life cycle — design and operation — and higher reliability of small hydropower plants.
Affordable hydropower
For the private consumer.
Technology reference
The company’s delivered track record is in refining: four plants and +14 M t/year of crude-processing capacity built on MRUS technology — Multifractional Separation of Crude Hydrocarbons. The hydropower stream applies the same discipline to a different asset class.
Three strengths and two limitations
Efficiency depends on the watercourse, and fish passage cannot be dispensed with. Both belong in the first conversation about a site, not the last one.
Strengths
From the design stage, structures that add to the cost of design, construction and operation are removed rather than optimised.
Fewer items of equipment, and less variety among them, shortens design and construction time and lowers operating costs.
Operation of the scheme, or of a cascade, can be fully automated: a large reduction in staff, up to unmanned operation on site.
Limitations
Efficiency, and therefore the capacity generated, depends heavily on watercourse conditions — from 40% to 95%.
Fish passage facilities cannot be dispensed with. Their cost can reach 50% of the total project cost.
Four steps to a commissioned plant
The approach is ready to be applied to specific watercourses. The sequence above is what that takes; the three inputs below are what a site-specific proposal needs before it can be written.
List of sites
Hydrological data
Target capacity
The company is ready to discuss the parameters of a specific site and watercourse.
Send the three inputsDiscuss a specific site and watercourse
Send the list of sites, the hydrological data and the target capacity, and the reply comes back with an assessment of what the site can carry.
12 Presnenskaya Embankment, office 505
Moscow, 123112, Russia +7 919 877-18-79