The Advanced Advanced Hydroelectric Power Plants Application with Pelton Turbine, "AEL-HPPPA", has been designed by EDIBON with a double purpose: on one hand it allows studying the performance characteristics of a Pelton turbine and, on the other hand, it allows studying the operation of real hydroelectric power plants. This application consists of real mechanical and electrical elements (reduced scale sized) for testing in laboratories.

The AEL-HPPPA application consists of a water tank (water reservoir) from which the water is propelled via pipe through a high power water pump (for simulating potential energy) up to an injector in which is installed a pressure sensor, with the great advantage of controlling the water pressure via pump speed control (flow/pressure variations). At the output of the water pump there is a flow sensor that allows measuring the water flow injected into the turbine. In this way different pressures can be obtained to analyze several operation regimes of the Pelton turbine, as well as power generation variations. Thus it is included a torque sensor, a braking system and a load cell to measure the turbine torque. This allows obtaining the operation parameters as well as the characteristic curves of the turbine.

In addition, due to its versatility and flexibility, this application allows studying the operation of both large hydroelectric power plants and mini hydroelectric centers. For this purpose, an electrical generator is coupled to the Pelton turbine for electricity production and with the goal of setting different energy consumptions. A network analyzer is located at the output of the generator to monitor the power generation parameters such as active, reactive and apparent power, phase currents, frequency and power factor. In addition this application has a capacitor bank that provides reactive energy for power factor correction and a resistive load bank for the generated energy consumption.

Additionally, Edibon recommends to acquire the Computer Controlled Series/Parallel Pumps Bench, "PBSPC", to study Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Systems. This unit allows the students to study the energy storage in the form of potential energy through water pumping and the operative advantages of centrifugal pumps connected in series and parallel. In practice pumped storage Hydroelectric Power Plants receive orders from the grid operator for consuming the energy surplus at low demand periods (off-peak hours, mainly at nights) through pumping the water towards higher reservoirs in order to generate energy again during high demand periods (or peak periods).

In this way, with the combination of "PBSPC" and "AEL-HPPP" it is possible to study the performance of Pumped Storage Power Systems comparing the power generation by the Pelton turbine and the consumed energy by the pumping storage system (PBSPC).