Sustainable development of small hydropower plants (SHPs)

The aim of this article is to investigate the small hydropower plants (SHPs) in Turkey. Total hydropower potential of Turkey is annually 433,000 GWh. Almost 50% of the total potential is technically exploitable and 29% (122,322 GWh/year) is economically exploitable. The country is planning to make use of the exploitable hydropower potentials (HPPs) of 122,322 GWh/year by 2023. Since the 1960s, more than 700 dams in various sizes have been constructed and 519 dams have already been in operation by 2002. Of these 519 dams, 202 facilities have been constructed as large dams and 317 as small dams. There are now a total of 134 hydroelectric power plants (HEPPs), total installed hydropower capacity of Turkey has reached 12,177 MW, and production has reached 44,034 GWh/year in 2002. About 38% of the total electricity is produced by HEPPs, approximately 98.5% of total hydropower potential is exploited from dams and HEPPs, whose installed capacity is more than 10 MW, and the rest (1.5%) is from run off river and channel HPPs. At the end of 2002, of these 317 small dams, 70 SHPs projects (installed capacity less than 10 MW) have put in operation and 203 SHP projects (installed capacity less than 10 MW) have been developed at various stages in Turkey.