Decision support system for micro-hydro power plants in the Amazon region under a sustainable development perspective

One of the main obstacles to the socio-economic development of the Brazilian Amazon is the lack of electric energy in the numerous small isolated communities of the region that hampers value-added agricultural production, revenue growth and creation of jobs. One way to solve this problem is by setting up micro-hydro power (MHP) plants under a sustainable development perspective. This paper presents a decision support system (DSS) that analyzes this solution. The system considers the hydrological, topographical, geotechnical, environmental, energy, economic and social aspects of the target site. A detailed analysis is made of the hydrological model that employs a rainfall run-off model for small catchment analysis; the energy planning favors a two-turbine method to determine the maximum energy production during demand peaks, and the economic aspects show that the costs of energy generated by MHP plants are comparable to those from rural grid systems and lower than those from from diesel generators. Thus, the use of the hydro-power resources of the small catchments of Amazonia combined with the minimization of the environmental impacts caused by MHP not only fulfills the energy demand of the small communities of region, but is also viable economically along with job creation and revenue generation, and it supports the perspective of sustainable development.

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