A vane body of a guide vane includes a leading edge, and a trailing edge which is located closer to a runner than the leading edge, when located radially outside the runner. A projection extending in a direction from the trailing edge toward the leading edge is provided on an internal-diameter side blade face of the vane body, at least in any one of one side area of the internal-diameter side blade face and the other side area thereof in an axial direction of a guide vane rotation shaft, the internal-diameter side blade face being disposed on a side of the runner. The projection has a projection rear end of an arcuate shape, which projection rear end is formed to extend along a rotation trajectory which is drawn by the trailing edge when the vane body is rotated about the guide vane rotation shaft.

A power generation plant including a turbine (1) of a Kaplan, bulb, diagonal flow or propeller turbine type, a water intake (4) and a water run-off (5). Additional vanes vane (8) are deployable into a water passage formed between the water intake (4) and the housing of the turbine. Eddy flows formed in the water intake (4) are reduced by the additional vanes. The vanes allow the turbine operating range to be extended to cover smaller outputs.

A guide vane bearing for a hydraulic machine is provided, which may be serviced from the side of the water flow path, and a method for installing and removing a bearing of this type. The guide vane bearing includes a bearing support and a layer of bearing material and at least three segments, which are separately connectable to the bottom ring of the hydraulic machine, each segment including one part of the bearing support and one part of the layer of bearing material, and a joint between the segments being obliquely formed with respect to the bearing axis, so that one segment has a wedge shape, and the bearing furthermore including a bearing seal, and the bearing seal being rotatably fixedly connected to the trunnion of the guide vane, and the bearing support including a surface, which is designed as a running surface for the lip of the bearing seal.

A hydroelectric power generation system includes: a generator driven by the hydraulic turbine; a head adjuster adjusting an effective head of the hydraulic turbine; and a controller cooperatively executing: flow rate control for controlling the generator such that a flow rate in the hydraulic turbine is brought close to a target flow rate; and head adjusting control for adjusting the effective head of the hydraulic turbine using the head adjuster such that the effective head of the hydraulic turbine falls within a first range.

The present invention relates to a method for optimizing the adjustment of the gating of a hydraulic turbine (1), this turbine (1) being provided with a set of wicket gates (2), these wicket gates (2) being able to move with a single, conjoined movement between a closing position in which they press against one another and an opening position in which they are apart from one another, by means of a control ring (4) that is kinematically connected to each one of these wicket gates (2), this control ring (4) being itself moved in rotation by at least one actuator (3), this actuator (3) comprising a device (31) for adjusting the travel of its rod (30), characterized by the fact that it comprises at least the following steps, said turbine (1) being previously stopped and dry and the rod (30) of said actuator (3) being provided with at least one strain gauge: 1/ Calculating the theoretical force to be applied to said actuator (3) in order to obtain watertight closure of said wicket gates (2); 2/ Measuring, via said strain gauge, the force applied to said actuator (3), the latter being inoperative; 3/ After bringing said actuator (3) online, moving its rod (30) until said wicket gates (2) adopt said closing position and measuring the corresponding force, referred to as the measured force; 4/ Comparing the measured force with the theoretical force calculated in step 1/.

The present invention provides a simple and effective passive turbine unit that uses the flow of water or air to rotate a main runner and produce continuous and intermittent electricity from streams, rivers, tidal water and high wind areas. The turbine unit may be installed as an individual unit or in combination with other turbine units. In an alternative configuration the turbine units may be stacked on top of one another. The turbine units are capable of working in a bi-directional flow of water or air, and are scalable to meet the needs of a user. The turbine unit is particularly suited for use within undeveloped areas that do not have access to electricity but do have access to streams, rivers, tidal waters, or high wind areas.

A stepwise operating parallel-type hydro power generation system having a fixed flow path includes a parallel pipe, a first power generation facility, a second power facility generation facility, first and second flow regulators, and a controller. The parallel pipe includes an inlet pipe, an outlet pipe, and a first straight pipe and a second straight pipe. The first and second straight pipes connected between the inlet pipe and the outlet pipe. Each of the first and second power generation facilities includes a water turbine rotating with the water introduced thereinto and a power generator operating according to the rotation of the water turbine. The controller is configured to open and close either or both of the first and second flow rate regulators at the same time.

The invention disclosed herein comprises a system focusing water current into a relatively smaller diameter lumen, imparting vortical movement to the current, and directing the water vortex through an even smaller diameter lumen en route to turbine blades having long curved blades rotatable along an axis parallel with the lumen. Rotation of the turbine blades turns gearing interfacing with the circumference of the turbine assembly, to rotate a drive shaft connected to a generator.

This method can be used for refurbishing a facility for converting hydraulic energy into electrical or mechanical energy, and vice versa. The facility includes a Francis type pump-turbine. The pump-turbine includes a runner movable about an axis, a pre-distributor, including stay vanes defining between each pair of two adjacent stay vanes a first water passage channel and a distributor, including guide vanes arranged downstream of the stay vanes in the direction of water flow feeding the pump-turbine operating in turbine mode. The guide vanes define between each pair of two adjacent guide vanes a second water passage channel. This method includes steps of reducing the height, taken parallel to the axis of rotation of the runner, of the first water passage channels and reducing the height, taken parallel to the axis of rotation of the runner, of the second water passage channels.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, a guide vane of a water turbine rotatable about an axis, including a guide vane for directing supplied flowing water toward the downstream side. The guide vane has a downstream end edge having an upper end portion and a lower end portion. The lower end portion of the downstream end edge is displaced in the direction orthogonal to an axis with respect to the upper end portion of the downstream end edge when viewed from the downstream side.