San Gabriel Valley Water Company “Plug-and-Play” In-Conduit Hydropower Development Project

California has many small, in-conduit hydroelectric stations with generation potential less than 100 kilowatts. Many of these stations have similar pressure and flow characteristics as well as design layouts, lending them to modularization and standardization. Recent technological advances in off-the-shelf, low-cost turbine technologies for these types of stations have reduced costs, but a significant barrier remains to broader development of existing conduits that would enable the extraction of power. This includes the high cost associated with the civil, mechanical, and electrical design, interconnection, and construction. Thus, further advancements in modularizing and standardizing in-conduit hydroelectric technology is needed to reduce costs and accelerate implementation.

The San Gabriel Valley Water Company “Plug-and-Play” In-Conduit Hydropower Development Project designed, developed, and demonstrated a modular in-conduit hydropower water-to-wire package that offers a standard design and equipment that can be installed in hundreds of in-conduit sites throughout California with generation potential of less than 100 kilowatts. This plug-and-play design template will advance the modularization of critical electrical and civil components common to small, in-conduit hydropower stations to take advantage of recent advances in modularization of the mechanical turbine technologies. The new design will maximize the cost-effective generation of the under-used sub-100 kilowatt hydroelectric sector throughout California — leading to increased generation of in-conduit hydropower in the statewide energy mix and contributing to the state’s goal to provide 100 percent of its electricity from renewable and zero-carbon sources by 2045.