Resumo:
The increase in storage capacity of existing reservoirs becomes an interesting alternative, since reservoirs are being increasingly restricted due to socio-environmental pressures or the limitation of favorable areas. It is proposed the development of a mechanism to increase the storage capacity in the reservoir of hydroelectric power plants, which is self-operated according to the level of the reservoir. For this, the Lindolpho Pio da Silva Dias Dam was used as study object, which is located in the municipality of Poços de Caldas / MG, with an accumulation reservoir of approximately 30 million cubic meters. The conduction of the materials and methods includes, besides the characterization of the study area, the accomplishment of hydroenergetic planning and the development of the mechanism itself. In hydropower planning, we tried to determine how much will be the volume capacity increase in the reservoir, resulting from the alteration of the discharge rate and the value of the increment in the regularized flow. The energy gain was also stipulated in the cascade hydroelectric dams, downstream, and a preliminary economic analysis was carried out to determine if the profit from this gain, in turbinated flow, is enough for the concessionaire to make feasible the investment to change the allocation quota. In the development of the mechanism itself, it was incorporated the determination of the best hydrodynamic profile and the physical momentum swing, pivoted on horizontal axis, with computational simulation and laboratory experimentation steps. With the alteration of the reservoir quota in 1 [m], which was suggested by the concessionaire of the reservoir, maintaining the 95% guarantee level, the planning indicated an increase of approximately 0.21 [m³/s] in the and 5 million cubic meters in the storage capacity of the reservoir. This allows an energy gain of approximately 3341 [MWh/year], considering all hydroelectric plants downstream. In relation to the development of the mechanism, the hydrodynamic profile was well functioning. The same presented an automatic pouring operation, performing its opening and closing process according to the level, and good stability while allowing the passage of the delivery flow.
