Dams, reservoirs and hydropower

Managing water and energy resources

Dams and reservoirs help manage scarce and unevenly distributed freshwater resources by storing it and releasing it as required. Hydropower from dams generates a substantial part of the world’s renewable energy. Pumped storage schemes play an increasingly critical role as large scale virtual batteries that can store the surplus energy, including that produced by intermittent renewable sources, and release it during periods of peak demand, thereby balancing the electricity grid. 

Design considerations

Designs often require customization to match project-specific hydraulic profiles, which may involve CFD analysis to ensure performance under operational scenarios.

When engineering valve and hydraulic systems for dam and hydropower applications, the following parameters must be carefully considered:

• Max. static and dynamic waterhead 
• Required flow rate at max. and min. heads
• Valve/gate size
• Max. valve/gate emergency closure velocity
• Water quality (clean, silt laden, dirty, with rocks and branches, corrosive)
• Actuation requirement 
• Site location/accessibility
• Maintenance considerations

AVK valves for all main applications

AVK offers a broad product portfolio of inhouse manufactured valves, featuring one of the market’s widest ranges of discharge and guard valves, comprising: Fixed cone (free) discharge valves, submerged discharge valves, needle (plunger) valves, knife gate valves, butterfly valves, recoil and tilting disc check valves, bonneted gate valves, stop logs, radial and roller gates, penstocks, resilient and metal seated gate valves, ball float valves and air valves.