Montenegro – SHPP Bistrica Montenegro, Design and Approval Planning

Approval planning for Bemax d.o.o. for the 4 MW small hydro power plant Bistrica to obtain official permits required for the execution and the operation of the plant. The Bistrica SHPP scheme is located on the river Bistrica, close to the town Berane, in the Sandzak region (northeast Montenegro), and is a typical run-of-river power plant scheme for a mountainous region. Bistrica SHPP utilizes a natural head of about 165 m between the headwork location and power house location. A Tyrolean weir was constructed to divert the flow of the Bistrica river to the headrace system. Before entering the penstock, the flow enters a 49 m long sandtrap (desander) consisting of two chambers, each 3 m wide. From the sandtrap, the water is conveyed to the 4.2 m long embedded penstock with a diameter of 1.6, 1.5 and 1.4 m, which is laid along the public road. The penstock feeds two Pelton turbines with six jets each. The total installed capacity of Bistrica SHPP was equal to 5.4 MW with a design discharge of 4 m³/s (per unit 2 m³/s), and the mean annual energy generation was estimated to be about 19 GWh.