In villages in Southeast Asia, a person often must sit inside a powerhouse to manually control the flow of water in small hydro microgrids to ensure the systems operate safely. “The operator will watch the system parameters and open or close the valve to the turbine to regulate the flow of water and therefore quantity of energy generated as the demand changes,” said Dan Frydman, project engineer for Green Empowerment, which aims to boost access to renewable energy in Southeast Asia and elsewhere. It’s not easy to do this 24/7 and meet high standards, he said.
