Measurement of Head and Flow of Bosso, Chanchaga and Tagwai Dams Proposed Storage and Off-Shore Hydroelectric Power Plants

Standard of living in Nigeria is significantly low with almost 90% of factories at moribund due to epileptic power supply with the effects ranging from domestic discomfort to national embarrassment. Hydropower is the most widely used source of power in the world today because of some of its remarkable advantages of being low cost and high reliability. The quantity of electrical power that can be obtained from hydropower is the product of head and flow. The study measured the gross head using hose level and direct meter rule methods and the gross head was also calculated using the relevant formula. The flow was measured using bucket/container method. The results showed that the gross heads for Bosso, Chanchaga and Tagwai proposed storage hydroelectric plant were 3.0 m, 7.0 m and 4.0 m respectively, while the alternative gross head for Bosso, Chanchaga and Tagwai dams were calculated to be;24.74 m, 31.38 m and 38.89m respectively. While the mean gross head of the proposed off shore plants for the three dams were 4.98 m, 1.08 m and 6.12 m respectively. The mean reservoir flows were found to be 111.91m3s-1, 759.45 m3s-1 and 1,571.03 m3s-1for proposed Bosso, Chanchaga and Tagwai storage and off-shore hydroelectric power plants respectively. The results showed that the heads and flows of the three dams satisfied the requirements for establishment of hydroelectric power plants that requires a minimum head of 0.2 m and minimum flow of 0.02 m3s-1.