ASSESSMENT OF THE HYDROPOWER POTENTIAL OF GORONYO DAM IN SOKOTO STATE, NIGERIA

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Department of Engineering

ABSTRACT
Energy is one commodity on which provision of goods and services depend. Its availability and consumption rate is an economic index to measure the development of any community. Nigeria has limitation to power supply from the National grid which has adverse effect on the populace?s economic and social development. This necessitates the need for other sources of viable alternative to which hydropower schemes is the best and sustainable. Goronyo Dam was built across River Rima in 1984 and was commissioned in 1992 in Sokoto State of Nigeria. It has a storage capacity 942,000000 m3and a catchment of 21,445 km2. The aim of this research to investigate and assess the hydropower potential of Goronyo Dam using Rainfall Data from 1986 - 2015.The research was carried out using HEC - HMS (Hydrological Engineering Centre - Hydrologic Modeling System) Software designed U.S Army Corps of Engineers, Sequent - Method or Analytical Method. The HEC-HMS was used for analyzing rainfall Data. The parameters (evaporation, direct rainfall, inflow etc.) needed for computing the required storage capacity were calculated separately using appropriate equations. The sediment volume of the Reservoir was also determined. This study revealed that the volume of sediments in the Reservoir was 26,179,302m3and has lost storage capacity at about its dead storage (21,500,000m3) with an excess of 4,679,302m3.The discharge required for estimating hydropower potential of Goronyo Reservoir was computed as 268m3/s.The head of the Reservoir was 9.5 m.It was also found that the Reservoir isexperiencing seepage mostly during periods of high flow at some areas with annual discharge of146, 684.81L/yr. The water collected from the relief wells was clean indicating the absence of piping through the dam embankment. The peak discharge (18624m3/s) of the dam was used for calculating the peak power as 1735.667 MW for hydro power and 1388.531MW for hydroelectric power while the discharge (268m3/s) gotten from water balance analysis was used for calculating the theoretical power and actual power of the Dam. The theoretical power of the dam was calculated as 25MW while the actual power was calculated as 20MW. With generation capacity of 20 MW, reveals that Goronyo Reservoir has the hydropower potential for hydroelectric power generation and by classification of hydropower Goronyo dam belong to the medium hydropower scheme. In order to maintain the design live span of the Dam, there is need for rehabilitation and dredging