Pressure pipeline system to produce hydropower: Ecemiş-Turkey

The demand of energy is increasing day after day while producing clear and renewable energy is getting more important for contemporary countries because of global warming. So, any kind of project has to be considered in terms of timing, environment, safety-security and cost. Hydropower dams provide an important source of energy in many countries for a long time. However, they have several impacts on environment, sometimes on cultural history. So, it has been the greatest dilemma in engineering projects whether to preserve historical remains and fertile farm lands or to behave in favor of hydropower generation. Implementing more professional engineering approaches and practical engineering works can remove the engineering structure from being in a critical situation. Ecemiş Fault corridor in Turkey is one of these cases where a careful consideration of the problem would result in beneficial solution in both ways. There are huge landslides with several billions of cubic meters in this fault corridor. The water-discontinuity-clay trinity (WDC) is well developed in this trough and plays a significant role in the formation of these landslides. So, a big dam project with a wide reservoir will cause a lot of geotechnical problems and also remedial works which mean time and money. This study suggests an alternative project, pressure pipeline system, instead of a large dam. The recommended system will preserve both fertile agricultural lands and historical sites and also produce more energy. The proposed system has many advantages in terms of timing, environment, safety-security and cost; and consists of small dams on the tributaries, regulators on Ecemiş stream, pipelines and power plants.