Value Engineering for the Optimisation of Micro-Hydro Power Plant in Kampung Assum, Sarawak

Ting, Sim Nee and Jefferson Yong, Kiong Leong and Nicholas Kuan, Hoo Tien (2019) Value Engineering for the Optimisation of Micro-Hydro Power Plant in Kampung Assum, Sarawak. Journal of Applied Science & Process Engineering, 6 (2). pp. 424-438. ISSN 2289-7771

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Abstract

Most rural locations in East Malaysia are not electricity grid connected. These places rely heavily on high-cost diesel fuels for generating electric power, which can be environmentally unfriendly. Most of all, this situation hampered the potential growth in terms of economic productivity and developments in these rural locations. However, with the vast network of streams and rivers available in Sarawak, there are high prospective of constructing micro-hydro power plant as electricity generating alternative. Efforts and studies on micro hydro power plants have been put in place. However, there exists a gap in the field of study of optimized design and construction of micro-hydropower system. This project proposed a Value Engineering (VE) study in the civil and structure sections of microhydro plant in Kampung Assum, Sarawak in order to achieve high functional value for the facility. VE Job Plan was utilized as the backbone of this research study framework. VE calculation modelling is produced and conventional micro-hydro power plant is designed using the modelling as control baseline design. Ideas to further optimise and improve the value of the micro-hydro system are generated and evaluated, which are then compared with the control baseline design. Determination of value for micro-hydropower system is dependent on the cost incurred and the efficiency of the civil and structural components as a whole. The chosen idea is then used to the next development phase which notable changes in parameters of micro-hydro civil structures are further determined to improve the value. In this study, evaluating the micro-hydro civil components as a whole with adjustments made to modify the overall output data are discovered to be the prominent idea. From this study, the optimisation proposed could improved the functional value of the micro-hydro power plant in Kampung Assum by 17%.

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