Assessment of mini and micro hydropower potential in Egypt: Multi-criteria analysis

Abstract

There is a common misconception that at least 95% of Egypt’s potential hydropower has already been used, which does not reflect reality. Currently, only five hydropower plants operate along the river Nile, from Aswan high dam to Assiut barrage. The total installed capacity is around 2840 MW. However, Egypt has many main canals and Rayahat and an irrigation network system, including barrages, head regulators, and navigation locks, which enable 120 MW of clean electricity (equivalent to 4 times of Assiut power station generation) if used to generate electricity. This paper aims to assess mini and micro hydropower’s potential in Egypt for the main grid areas. Eight sites have been selected and ranked as an application sample in this work based on their hydraulic data availability. The rank of the most suitable energy generation sites is determined with spatial maps’ aid based on the flow duration curves, capacity factor, and multi-criteria analysis. The decision matrix developed to rank the selected locations, and the turbine efficiency curve is proposed in terms of the available flow to decide the suitable turbines. Also, the spatial maps give a clear vision to decision-makers of the possibility of exploiting different resources and the priority of implementation. The results obtained show a promising prospect of mini and micro hydropower in Egypt. The annual energy from the eight studied sites is estimated by 200 GWh according to the daily hydraulic data of the year 2017. Damietta barrage takes priority as the weight value of criteria is the highest value by 2.85, and its annual energy is estimated by 78.5 GWh. The eight sites are more suitable for peak load plants, but Damietta and Zefta are appropriate by less priority for baseload plants.