TITLE:
Run of River Bulk Hydroelectric Generation from the Congo River without a Conventional Dam
AUTHORS:
Thomas J. Hammons, Pathmanathan Naidoo, Lawrence Musaba
KEYWORDS:
Hydroelectric Power Generation, River Engineering, Environmental Iimpact, Hydropower Development in
DRC
JOURNAL NAME:
Natural Resources,
Vol.2 No.1,
March
4,
2011
ABSTRACT: The paper discusses harvesting the Congo River for bulk hydroelectric generation based on run of river, low head generation technology, as employed at the existing Inga 2 power station in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The evolutionary approach builds on existing infrastructure.The results show that the footprint is much smaller than that which employs a conventional dam. The environmental impact is minimized. These collectively will contribute to lower capital costs. In summary, 10,000 cm³/sec of constant river flow will produce 5,000 MW of base power. On average, the constant recorded flow of the river is 30,000 cm³/sec and a total of 15,000 MW of base power generation is possible.