International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 11, Number 10 (2016) pp 7095-7099
© Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com
Are Tidal Power Generation Suitable as the Future Generation for
Malaysian Climate and Location: A Technical Review?
Z.H. Bohari1,a*, M. F Baharom1,b, M. H Jali1,c, M. F. Sulaima1,d, W. M. Bukhari1,e
1
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, UniversitiTeknikal Malaysia Melaka
Hang Tuah Jaya, 76100 Malacca, Malaysia
Environmental concerns
Tidal Power Station will potentially affect marine life which
lives nearby the location of the construction of our project.
The turbines may accidentally kill marine life with their
blades which are rotating, to which they might be pulled into
the blades due to the tides which occur twice a day. The
installation of tidal barrage might causes the changes of the
coastline of the bay and estuary which will affect undersea
ecosystem which counts on tidal flat. The main concern for a
tidal lagoon is the blade strike on the fishes which attempt to
enter the lagoon.
Abstract
Tidal energy is a pollution-free and renewable energy;
therefore tidal power generation is increasingly well known
nowadays in this world. This paper is related to the latest issue
and long-range view for the development of tidal energy when
the countries in the world take the first step to exploit and
make use of tidal energy as early as last century by putting
effort in research, practice and build many tidal power
generation stations. As everyone knows, water turbine
generation unit is an essential element to build a tidal power
generation. Therefore, this paper also refers to how the water
turbine generating units functioned in the tidal power
generation stations and roughly explains their features as well.
Corrosion
Salt water can potentially cause corrosion in metal parts of the
tidal system. To add into the problem, there will be some
difficulties to do maintenance of tidal stream generators since
the generators are placed below underwater for 7 meters.
Though we can utilize some corrosion-resistant elements to
prevent this problem, for instance stainless steels and high
nickel alloys, this will decrease the corrosion damage to the
environment.
Keywords: tidal; renewable; water turbine; generation
stations
INTRODUCTION
The first tidal power generation station is built in Canada
since 1984. It is located at Annapolis River and it produced
20MW of power. As the location is also our main concern, we
have to search for a suitable geographical location to place
this tidal energy system. Tides occur twice a day and they are
caused by the gravitational effect of the Moon, Sun and the
rotation of the Earth.
Tidal energy has been used in Britain and France for milling
grains since the 11th Century in Britain and France for milling
grains. It is a form of hydroelectricity but the height of the
‘dammed’ water is generally less than 10 meters. A place
which is appropriate to generate electricity supply from tidal
energy generation would usually have a tidal range larger than
7 meters, an entrance which is narrow toward the inlet and
plenty of water flowing through it at every tide when the
generator is working. The location should also be a nearby
demand for electricity, otherwise, the energy produced needs
to be stored in some way or transported to where it is needed,
which it will increase the cost.
Environmental impact is also an important criterion that needs
to be assessed. Tidal energy is a kind of power which
transforms the kinetic energy obtained by tides which it spins
the turbine to generate power into a useful form of power,
mainly electricity. Even though it is still not widely spread in
the worldwide, it has potential to generate electricity supply
because tides are discoverable source than the wind and solar
energy
Expensive for installation
The way to determine the cost of installation is based on the
dimension which is length and height of the tidal barrage. The
barrage needs to be built with both high and low tides as
height must be different for both side. The tidal power station
needs 10 years of the construction period and technology
required is well developed.
Specific Location
The requirement to build the power station is the dam must be
at least 7 meters and narrow entrances. It can be located at the
shoreline and remote from human population.
Reduce salinity in tidal basin
The salinity of water changes because of water exchange
between the estuary and the ocean.
It only generates electricity when tidal in or out which is
ten hours a day.
There are many types of renewable energy were previewed in
this chapter such as steam power, hydropower and solar
power. But it will be different for our project, to which we
would like to choose tidal power as our subject since it is
rarely used all around the globe. Globally, renewable energy
such as tidal power may take a back seat to other renewable
energies such as solar power and wind power. Usually it is
overlooked and may deem of unimportance. However, there
DESIGN CONCERN
There are several problems that occur in this system which:
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International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 11, Number 10 (2016) pp 7095-7099
© Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com
across the estuary, or a bay. The range of the tidal, which is
the difference between the low and the high tide, should be
excessed for at least seven meters so that the barrage will be
functional. With tides coming in, water will flow through the
dam and moving to the basin respectively. Though the gates
will be closed during the halts of the tide; the objective of
such procedure is to trap the water in basin or estuary. When
the tides flow out of the gates, the turbines inside the dam is
being opened so the water will pass through, making the
generation of energy possible. This system even has its own
pros and cons, to which the tidal barrages are very costly
infrastructure and will potentially, harm the local
environment. Within the barrage, the power of the tides is
harnessed by the turbines similarly to how a river dam
harnesses the river’s power. Moreover, in terms of time, the
constructions of these dams are very lengthy that can take up
to few years. To illustrate, the La Ranke barrage in France,
which is well-known as the most enormous tidal power station
globally, took about five years to build.
Inside the turbine, there are generators that are placed within
with the function of obtaining energy from the fluid flow. The
fluid can either be in a form of air which is from the wind or
liquid which is from the water. Generally, since water is
generally denser than the air is, tidal energy is more likely to
be powerful than that of energy from the wind. Plus, tides are
more of a predictable source, the stability of it also adds up to
its potential as a renewable energy, unlike winds. Stream of
electricity will be produced when tidal generators are used.
Though, a barrage cost quite a lot of fortune for a tidal energy
generator than a single turbine worth's. Even though there are
no costs for fuels, more constructions and more machines are
expected to be involved in the barrage. Barrages, however,
unlike single turbines, requires a rather constant supervision
so that the power output can be adjusted.
are many aspects of this type of energy that speak volumes.
As we can see hydropower are using the same concept with
the tidal power but the difference between them are tidal
power plant is built at the estuary and using tides as their
medium to generate power and rotate propeller shaped turbine
differ from hydropower which using a water that stagnant in
dammed and then flow to the turbine. Based on the
consideration that was mentioned in chapter 2 which is the
cost, location, maintenance and power demand of this system,
we have included these details in this report accordingly and
precisely. To conclude, this study is going to include a rather
extensive research into the effectiveness as well as how this
system is built and how it works from the inside. We will also
examine other generating methods as well as the pros and
cons of this system it may or may not cause.
METHODOLOGY
How does it work?
A tidal barrage is globally known as a structure that looks like
a dam that obtains the energy from the water that flows into
the bay or river and outside them which are caused by tidal
forces, which is commonly built on an estuary. Within the
barrage which is equipped with the system, at the turbines, the
water is made possible to spill over them due to the dam being
low in height. Unlike a conventional dam, which dams the
water on only one side, the tidal barrage during the high tide
will allow the water to flow in and out the bay or river, and
released during the low tide. The process can be done by the
measurement of the tidal flow having control over the sluices
gates at certain times of the tidal cycle which is called ‘Key
Times’. At the sluices, the turbines are placed for energy
capturing with the water flowing in and out of the barrage.
Cost to build
When we compared tidal power to hydropower, tidal power
project is really expensive. It includes massive structure which
takes up to 10 years to build and it requires to be built in a
saltwater environment. Based on our research, we calculated
the cost of setting up of tidal power which proposes 8000
megawatts which located on Severn Estuary which is
estimated to cost US $15 billion, but different from the one
which is located in Philippines that produces about 2200
megawatts and is estimated to cost around US $3 billion. In
this investment, the average electrical power generated by the
power station was limited by only twice-daily ebb and flow of
tides. The researcher estimated that average electricity that
was generated is less than 40% of installed generating
capacity.
Maintenance
As our project is used to generate energy almost every day,
we should be concerned regarding the maintenance of tidal
components such as the turbine propeller which is the main
part. Maintenance of propeller depends on the usage of it, as it
is located in the salt water, the water will cause the propeller
to be rusty and it can cost about 30% of total cost of
maintenance on mechanical and electrical components. To
maintenance the system of the tidal barrage is not much of an
However, tidal barrages are indistinguishable with the dams
that are built in hydroelectric plants, with the exception for
them being enormous in size due to them being built either
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International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 11, Number 10 (2016) pp 7095-7099
© Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com
issue, since the survivability rate for the concrete caissons
would mean for a low cost of maintenance for this system.
Power Demand
The power generated were used to generate power grid and
then deliver to the customers and consumer. It had a lot of
power demand regarding of houses, factory and building
which located near to the power station. Even though it was
highly demanding on behalf of the customer, the power can
only generate maximum 2000 to 9000 megawatts on time.
Therefore, the generated power was provided depends on the
consumer power demand. Tidal barrage which generates
electricity which are in the estuary, could be attractive in both
economical and environmental perspectives, supplying it up to
at least 7 in percentage.
Table 1: Tidal Barrage
Figure 1: The maintenance routine model
Others Generating Methods
For the barrage system, tidal energy extracting method
requires building the barrage across river or a bay which is
tidal flow’s subjects. The installed turbines inside the barrage
will cause power generation with the flow of waters to the
inside and outside of the bay, river or basin’s estuary. The
systems are indistinguishable with a hydro dam which
produces pressure head, or in a similar word, a static head
which is the water pressure’s height. The turbines are able to
produce power thanks to the water level inside the basin or
lagoon being changed relatively with the outside.
Ebb Generation
Until the high tide occurs, the basin will be filled with water
which causes the sluice gates to close. The term 'pumping'
which functions to increase the level further, is used at this
stage when needed. The gates of the turbines are then closed
until the time when the sea level falls periodically, across the
barrage; a head is created to which the gates will be opened
again for the turbines to be in generate-mode until the head, is
once again low. This is followed by the sluices being opened;
to which it will disconnect the turbines, thus, the basin is
being filled once again. The cycle will repeat. The reason why
it is named Ebb generation is precisely due to the generation
that occurs when the tidal direction of the tides change.
Figure 2: The emergency maintenance model
Location
As we mentioned earlier, the estuary or bay are the perfect
locations to build this power plant. This is because when the
high tide occurs, the dammed door will open to allow water
from the sea to flow into the estuary and spin the turbine and
when the tide is fall, the water stagnant in dammed from
estuary flow again to the sea to spin the turbine. So, as the
generator which placed in between an estuary and sea which
was separated by dammed, water tides also play the main
roles as it has the potential to spin the turbine. The different
place has different strong of tides, the tides depend on the
amplitude of the deep sea. The tides also should be able to rise
at the very least, a height of 7 meters, as the tidal difference
are required. So it is a must for a developer to search and
locate areas of water flowing rather quick which are caused by
the tides motion. Underwater valleys, tidal streams can be
found, where the currents are forced to speed up and being
constricted.
Flood Generation
The water is filled into the basin through the turbines, to
which will generate once at tide flood. Generally, this is not
really efficient if compared to that of ebb generation since at
the basin’s upper half has a more volume than the lower half;
which during the flood generation, if filled thoroughly. The
utmost importance for the turbine to produce power which is
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International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 11, Number 10 (2016) pp 7095-7099
© Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com
the level difference that is available between the barrage’s sea
side and the basin side will reduce faster. Rather than ebb
generation enhancement, water from the rivers which flow
into the basin will reduce the potential of the energy.
Logically this is a problem if ‘lagoon model’ is used, since it
has no inflow of river.
Pressure Calculation
Pumping
During the high tide in ebb generation, it is possible to power
the turbines reversely by the grid’s energy to raise the basin’s
level of water. The energy produced is more than it is returned
during the generation; this is due to the output power strongly
being related to the head. This is due to the correlation
between the potential energy not being in a linear relationship,
but rather is related to the square of the tidal height variation.
Figure 4:
Two-basin schemes
Dual basin type is another form of energy barrage
configuration which one side during the high tide, it is filled
while during the low tide, it is emptied, between these basins,
the turbines are placed. This scheme has pros over the usual
schemes especially in generation period, to which at a rather
high flexibility, it can be adjusted and continuously generates.
However, in common situations in estuarine, this scheme is
rather costly to be constructed since the extra length of
barrage’s cost contributes to it being expensive. Plus, twobasin schemes also require a certain favourable geography
that is well suited to it.
Cd= Discharge Coefficient
A= Cross sectional area (m2)
g= gravity= 9.81
ρ= density (kg/m3)
Based on what we have learned before, the presence of the
flow of water and dynamic tidal power (DTP) which involves
the creation of a humongous dam, to which it extends all the
way from the coast to the ocean. Along the continental
shelves, where the coast-parallel tidal waves run, a rather
powerful current which is hydraulic current will be interfered
by this long T-dam. Usually, a DTP dam will be built
perpendicularly to the coast into the ocean with the length of
30 to 60 km. The dam blocks the tides’ horizontal
acceleration.
Normally, main tidal movement in many areas such as coastal
is parallel with the coast itself to which ocean water will
accelerate in only one direction and vice versa during the later
hours in the day. Since the length of the DTP dam is
reasonable enough to be exerting effects onto the movements
of the horizontal tidal, this makes the generation over the both
sides of the dam possible due to the differential of the water
level. Power can be converted from the head if the long series
of the conventional low-head turbines are used.
Even though the energy which produced in a day is unstable
within the 5 hours period, for the time being, for the next 5
hours in a day, it will keep on repeating the exact same
amount of energy. By proper calculation, the average energy
produced in a day amounts up to 2700 MW, this is already
considered a reliable amount and a source of energy to be
used in our country.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Figure 3: Graph for the production of the tidal energy in a
day
Energy calculations
From the barrage, the energy obtained is independent of the
volume of the water. Thus, from the volume of the water, the
potential energy contained is:
Where: A is the horizontal area of the barrage basin, h being
the vertical range and ρ is the density of water = 1025 kg per
cubic meter.
E=
CONCLUSION
To conclude, amongst other renewable energies, tidal energy
has the utmost potential. If compared with solar and wind
energy, tidal energy has more pros. For illustration, tidal
energy is neither unpredictable nor it is being affected by the
weather condition. Plus, tidal energy’s density is much higher
than the commonly known renewable energies. Even though it
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International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 11, Number 10 (2016) pp 7095-7099
© Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com
is in high demand in well-developed technology and capital
investment, but due to it being very costly, has blocked the
tidal energy development which causes tidal energy projects
being less built.
However, as the tidal barrages system is developing along
with coastal infrastructure nowadays, the tidal energy’s
popularization can be made possible. With the aforementioned
reasons above, we would like to propose that tides have a
rather important role in formatting the global climate
including the ocean habitat’s ecosystem. With the oil reserves
depleting, emission of greenhouse gasses due to burning fossil
fuels, renewable energy is expected to be in demand in the
future. This is precisely why tidal energy is the best solution
for this evolution that is yet to come. With the development of
efficient, new, low-cost and environmentally friendly
hydraulic energy converters which are suited to free-sow
water, tidal energy will make available not to just our country,
even to the worldwide. Moreover, the machine is also
available for power farms that require multi-megawatt and
also smaller power stations which are equipped with turbines
that generate a smaller value of kilowatts. These stations are
then able to provide clean and environmentally friendly
energy to smaller communities, and even individual
household who are located near the continental shorelines,
straits or even remote islands that have strong tidal currents.
[9]
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors like to acknowledge UniversitiTeknikal Malaysia
Melaka (UTeM) and Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia
for the financial support and providing the resources through
RAGS/1/2014/TK06/FKE/B00052 for the research fund.
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