Hydrokinetic resource assessment in Colombia's Non-Interconnected Zones: Case study

Energy accessibility in Non-Interconnected Zones (NIZ), together with the energy transition context, converges on exploring non-conventional renewable energy sources and the technology to harness them. Hydrokinetics is an interesting and abundant resource in Colombia, present in many cases near NIZ communities but with unavailable information about (flow velocity) its actual power generation potential. This work presents a method to assess the hydrokinetic resource in NIZ based on the estimation of river flow velocity from river discharge, river level, and cross-sectional profile data available from the Colombian Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM). It is applied in a case study where a year of data was studied to characterise the hydrokinetic resource and match a local household load demand with the potential power generation of a hydrokinetic turbine. An average river flow velocity of 1.14 m/s was obtained, showing a consistent behaviour that means reliability in potential energy production. This approach could be helpful for researchers or power suppliers who aim to harness hydrokinetic resources near NIZ users with hydrokinetic technology in the project planning stages.