Distributed Generation

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 Content
Distributed Generation
• Electricity Generation in Transition
• Distributed Generation with Fossil Fuels
• Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Technologies
• Biomass for Electricity
• Micro-Hydropower Systems
• Fuel Cells

Energy storage

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 ELECTRICITY GENERATION IN TRANSITION

The traditional utility incorporating generation,

transmission, distribution, and customer energy
services is in the beginning stages of revolutionary
changes. The opening of the transmission and
distribution grid to independent power producers who
offer cheaper, more efficient, smaller-scale plants is
well underway.

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 ELECTRICITY GENERATION IN TRANSITION

Distributed generation (DO) is the term used to

describe small-scale power generation, usually in sizes
up to around 50 MW, located near the point of
consumption. Such generators may be owned by a
utility or, more likely, owned by a customer who may
use all of the power on site or who may sell a portion,
or all of it, to the local utility.

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 ELECTRICITY GENERATION IN TRANSITION

Motivations to drive the transition toward small-scale,

decentralized energy systems include: economic
benefits, increased concern for environmental impacts
of generation, increased concern for the vulnerability of
centralized energy systems to terrorist attacks, and
increased demands for electricity reliability in the digital
economy.

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DISTRIBUTED GENERATION WITH FOSSIL FUELS
(HHV and LHV)
When a fuel is burned, some of the energy released ends up
as latent heat in the water vapor. Usually that water vapor,
along with the latent heat it contains, exits the stack along with
all the other combustion gases, and its heating value is lost.

In some cases, however, that is not the case. For example,

the most fuel-efficient, modern furnaces used for space-
heating homes achieve their high efficiencies (over 90%) by
causing the combustion gases to cool enough to condense
the water vapor before it leaves the stack.

Two values for the heat of combustion for a fuel: The higher
heating value (HHV), also known as the gross heat of
combustion, includes the latent heat, while the lower heating
value (LHV), or net heat of combustion, does not. 6
 Microturbines
A new generation of very small gas turbines often referred to as
microturbines generate from about 500 watts to several
hundred kilowatts.

Incoming air is compressed to three or four atmospheres of

pressure and sent through a heat exchanger called a
recuperator, where its temperature is elevated by the hot
exhaust gases. The hot, compressed air is mixed with fuel in
the combustion chamber and is burned. The expansion of hot
gases through the turbine spins the compressor and generator.
The exhaust is released to the atmosphere after transferring
much of its heat to the incoming compressed air in the
recuperator. By preheating the compressed incoming air, the
recuperator helps boost the efficiency of the unit.
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 Example
The Elliott TA 100A microturbine at its full 105 kW output burns
1.24 X 106 Btu/hr ( 1Btu = 1055J ) of natural gas. Its waste heat is
used to supplement a boiler used for water and space heating in an
apartment house. The design calls for water from the boiler at
1200 F to be heated to 1400 F and returned to the boiler. The
system operates in this mode for 8000 hours per year.
a) If 47% of the fuel energy is transferred to the boiler water, what
should the water flow rate be ?
b) If the boiler is 75% efficient, and it is fueled with natural gas
costing $6 per million Btu, how much money will the
microturbine save in displaced boiler fuel ?
c) If utility electricity costs $0.08/kWh, how much will the
microturbine save in avoided utility electricity ?
d) If O&M is $1500/yr, what is the net annual savings for the
microturbine ?
e) If the microturbine costs $220,000, what is the ratio of annual
savings to initial investment (called the initial rate of return) ?
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 Solution
a) The heat Q required to raise a substance with specific
heat c and mass flow rate m& by a temperature
difference of ∆T is Q = m & C∆T. Since it takes 1 Btu to
raise 1 lb of water by 1 oF, and one gallon of water
weighs 8.34 lb, we can write,
Water flow rate m& = 0.47X 1.24 X 106 Btu/h X 1/60 h/min
1 Btu/lb0F X 200F X 8.34 lb/gal
= 58 gpm
b) The fuel displaced by not using the 75% efficient boiler is
worth,
Fuel savings = 0.47 X 1.24 X 106 Btu/h X $6 X 8000 h/yr
0.75 106 Btu

= $37,300/yr
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 Solution
c) The utility electricity savings = 105 kW X 8000 h/yr X
$0.08/kWh = $67,200/yr

d) The cost of fuel for the microturbine is

= 1.24 X 106Btu/h X ($6/106 Btu) X 8000 h/yr= $59,520/yr
So the net annual savings of the microturbine, including
$1500/yr in O&M, is = ($37,300 + $67,200) - $59,520 -
$1500 = $43,480/yr

e) The initial rate of return on this investment would be

= Annual savings = $43,480/yr = 0.198 = 19.8%/yr
Initial investment $220,000
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 Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engines

Distributed generation today is dominated by installations

that utilize reciprocating-that is, piston-driven-internal
combustion engines (ICEs) connected to constant-speed
ac generators.

They are readily available in sizes that range from 0.5

kW to 6.5 MW. They are the least expensive of the
currently available DG technologies, and when burning
natural gas they are relatively clean.

Reciprocating engines make up a large fraction of the

current market for combined heat and power.

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 Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engines
Most of these engines are conventional, four-stroke
reciprocating engines. The four-stroke cycle consists of an
intake stroke, a compression stroke, a power stroke, and an
exhaust stroke.

During the intake stroke, the piston moves downward. The

partial vacuum created draws in air, or a mixture of air and
vaporized fuel, through the open intake valve. During the
compression stroke, the piston moves upward with both the
intake and exhaust valves closed. The gases are compressed
and heated, and near the top of the stroke combustion is
initiated. The hot, expanding gases drive the piston downward
in the power stroke forcing the crankshaft to rotate. In the final
stroke, the rising piston forces the hot exhaust gases to exit via
the now-open exhaust valve, completing the cycle.
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Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engines

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 Stirling Engines

For the reciprocating internal combustion engines,

combustion takes place inside the engine itself.

An alternative approach is external combustion, in which

energy is supplied to the working fluid from a source outside
of the engine. A Stirling-cycle engine is an example of a
piston-driven reciprocating engine that relies on external
rather than internal combustion. As such, it can run on
virtually any fuel or other source of high temperatures such
as concentrated sunlight shining onto a black absorber
plate.

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 Stirling Engines
The basic operation of a Stirling engine is explained in Fig. 4.6.
In this case, the engine consists of two pistons in the same
cylinder—one on the hot side of the engine, the other on the
cold side—separated by a “short-term” thermal energy storage
device called a regenerator.

Unlike an internal-combustion engine, the gas, which may be

just air, but is more likely to be nitrogen, helium, or hydrogen,
is permanently contained in the cylinder. The regenerator may
be just a wire or ceramic mesh or some other kind of porous
plug with sufficient mass to allow it to maintain a good thermal
gradient from one face to the other. It also needs to be porous
enough to allow gas in the cylinder to be pushed through it first
in one direction, then the other. As the gas passes through the
regenerator, it either picks up heat or drops it off, depending on
which way the gas is moving. 16
Stirling Engines

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 Stirling Engines

As shown, the space on the left-hand side of the regenerator

is kept hot with some source of heat, which might be a
continuously burning flame or perhaps concentrated
sunlight. On the right-hand side the space is kept cold by
radiative cooling or active cooling with a circulating heat-
exchange fluid. If it is actively cooled, that becomes a source
of heat for cogeneration. In other words, this is a heat
engine operating between a hot source and a cold sink. As
such, its efficiency is constrained by the Carnot-cycle limit.

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 Stirling Engines

Stirling engines in sizes ranging from less than 1 kW up to

about 25 kW are beginning to be made commercially available.
While their efficiency is still relatively low, typically less than
30%, rapid progress is making them competitive with internal-
combustion engines.

Since fuel is burned slowly and constantly, with no explosions,

these engines are inherently quiet, which could make them
especially attractive for automobiles, boats, recreational
vehicles, and even small aircraft. In fact, that quietness has
been used to advantage in Stirling engine propulsion systems
for submarines.

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CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER (CSP) TECHNOLOGIES

Utilization of the solar energy can be done with photovoltaics,

which are covered extensively later in this course, or with
concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies.

CSP technologies convert sunlight into thermal energy to run

a heat engine to power a generator. With the environment
providing the cold temperature sink, the maximum efficiency
of a heat engine is directly related to how hot the high-
temperature source can be made. Without concentration,
sunlight can’t provide high enough temperatures to make the
thermodynamic efficiency of a heat engine worth pursuing.
But with concentration, it is an entirely different story.

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 CSP TECHNOLOGIES

There are three successfully demonstrated

approaches to concentrating sunlight: parabolic dish
systems with Stirling engines, linear solar-trough
systems, and heliostats (mirrors) reflecting sunlight
onto a power tower.

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 Solar Dish/Stirling Power Systems

Dish/Stirling systems use a concentrator made up of

multiple mirrors that approximate a parabolic dish. The
dish tracks the sun and focuses it onto a thermal
receiver. The thermal receiver absorbs the solar energy
and converts it to heat that is delivered to a Stirling
engine.

With average efficiencies of over 20% and the record

measured peak efficiency of nearly 30%, dish/Stirling
systems currently exceed the efficiency of any other
solar conversion technology.

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 Solar Dish/Stirling Power Systems

Two competing dish/Stirling system technologies have

been successfully demonstrated. In one, the dish is
built by Science Applications International Corporation
(SAIC) and the engine by Sterling Thermal Motors
(STM). The other is a Boeing/Stirling Energy Systems
(SES) power plant. Both provide on the order of 25 kW
per system with conversion efficiencies from direct-
beam solar radiation to electrical power of over 20%.

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 Solar Dish/Stirling Power Systems
The SAIC Dish/Stirling system is illustrated in Fig. 4.8. The dish itself
is made up of an array of 16 stretched-membrane, mirrored facets.
Each facet consists of a steel ring approximately 3.2 m in diameter,
with thin stainless steel membranes stretched over both sides of the
ring to form a structure that resembles a drum. The top membrane is
made highly reflective by laminating either a thin glass mirror or a
silverized polymer reflective film onto the membrane. By partially
evacuating the space between the membranes, the shape of the
mirrored surface can be made slightly concave, allowing each facet
to be focused appropriately onto the receiver.

Sunlight, concentrated by the SAIC dish, is absorbed in the receiver

to provide 725°C heat to the Stirling engine. The STM engine is
made up of four cylinders, each with a double-acting piston,
arranged in a square pattern. The connecting rods for the pistons
cause a swashplate to convert their motion to the rotary motion
needed by the generator. The efficiency of these engines from heat
to mechanical power is over 36%. 24
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 Parabolic Troughs
As of 2003, the world’s largest solar power plant is a 354-MW
parabolic-trough facility located in the Mojave Desert near Barstow,
California called the Solar Electric Generation System (SEGS).

SEGS consists of nine large arrays made up of rows of parabolic-

shaped mirrors that reflect and concentrate sunlight onto linear
receivers located along the foci of the parabolas. The receivers, or
heat collection elements (HCE), consist of a stainless steel absorber
tube surrounded by a glass envelope with the vacuum drawn
between the two to reduce heat losses. A heat transfer fluid
circulates through the receivers, delivering the collected solar
energy to a somewhat conventional steam turbine/generator to
produce electricity.

The SEGS collectors, with over 2 million m2 of surface area, run

along a north-south axis, and they rotate from east to west to track
the sun throughout the day. Figure 4.9 illustrates the parabolic
trough concept. 26
Parabolic Troughs

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 Parabolic Troughs
Figure 4.10 presents an overall system diagram for a typical
parabolic trough power plant. The heat transfer fluid (HTF) is
heated to approximately 400°C in the receiver tubes along
the parabola foci. The HTF passes through a series of heat
exchangers to generate high-pressure superheated steam
for the turbine.

The system shown includes the possibility for thermal

storage as well as fossil-fuel- based auxiliary heat to run the
plant when solar is insufficient. Two options for hybrid
operation are indicated. One is based on a natural-gas-fired
HTF heater in parallel with the solar array. The other is an
optional gas boiler to generate steam for the turbine, which
makes it virtually the same as a complete, conventional
steam-cycle power plant with an auxiliary solar unit. 28
Parabolic Troughs

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 Solar Central Receiver Systems
Another approach to achieving the concentrated sunlight
needed for solar thermal power plants is based on a system of
computer-controlled mirrors, called heliostats, which bounce
sunlight onto a receiver mounted on top of a tower (Fig. 4.12).

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 Solar Central Receiver Systems

The evolution of power towers began in 1976 with the

establishment of the National Solar Thermal Test Facility at
Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
That soon led to the construction of number of test facilities
around the world, the largest of which was a 90-m-tall, 10-MW
power tower, called Solar One, built near Barstow, California.

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 Solar Central Receiver Systems
In Solar One, water was pumped up to the receiver where it
was turned into steam that was brought back down to a steam
turbine/generator. Steam could also be diverted to a large,
thermal storage tank filled with oil, rock, and sand to test the
potential for continued power generation during marginal solar
conditions or after the sun had set. While thermal storage as a
concept was successfully demonstrated, there was a sizable
mismatch between the storage tank temperature and the
temperature needed by the turbine for maximum efficiency.

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 Solar Central Receiver Systems
Solar One operated from 1982 to 1988, after which time it was
dismantled; parts of it, including the 1818 heliostats and the
tower itself, were reused in another 10-MW test facility called
Solar Two. While Solar One used water as the heat exchange
medium, Solar Two used molten nitrate salts (60% sodium
nitrate and 40% potassium nitrate). A two-tank, molten-salt
thermal storage system replaced the original oil/rock storage
tank in the configuration shown in Fig. 4.13. The molten-salt
system has proven to be a great success. Its temperature of
565°C well matches the needs of the steam turbine, and its
round-trip efficiency (the ratio of thermal energy out to thermal
energy in) was greater than 97%. It was designed to provide
enough storage to deliver the full 10-MW output of the plant
for an extra three hours past sunset. With reduced output, it
could deliver power for much longer periods from stored solar
energy. 33
Solar Central Receiver Systems

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 Some Comparisons of Concentrating Solar
Power Systems

The three approaches to concentrating solar thermal power

systems-dish Stirling, parabolic trough, and central
receiver—can be compared from a variety of perspectives.
Although they share the same fundamental approach of
using mirrored surfaces to reflect and concentrate sunlight
onto a receiver creating high enough temperatures to run a
heat engine with reasonable efficiency, they are in many
ways quite different from one another.

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 Some Comparisons of CSP Systems
With regard to efficiency, all three of these technologies
incorporate heat engines, which means the higher the
temperature of the heat source, the greater the potential
efficiency. The key to high temperatures is the intensity of solar
radiation focused onto the receiver, which is usually expressed
in dimensionless “suns” of concentration where the reference
point of 1 sun means no concentration.

The ranking for concentration ratios and the corresponding

efficiencies are: dish Stirling the highest, parabolic trough
the lowest and power towers in between.
In terms of the land area required per unit of electrical output,
power towers suffer because of the empty space between
tower and mirrors, so the rankings shift some. Dish Stirling
requires about 4 acres per MW, parabolic troughs about 5
acres/MW, and power towers about 8 acres/MW. 36
 Some Comparisons of CSP Systems
Another important concern for solar systems in general is whether
they can deliver electricity whenever it is needed. All three of these
CSP technologies can be hybridized using fossil fuel auxiliary heat
sources, so they are the somewhat the same in that regard. Another
way to achieve reliability, however, is with thermal storage; in that
regard, parabolic troughs and power towers have an advantage over
Dish/Stirling engines. When thermal storage is the backup rather
than fuel combustion, systems are easier to permit since they can be
100% solar.

Since all CSP technologies need to be able to focus the suns rays,
they will most likely be used in areas with very clear skies. If those
are desert areas, minimizing the need for cooling water can be a
significant concern. In that regard, Dish/Stirling engines, which need
no cooling water have the advantage over current designs for
troughs and towers. They also make very little noise and have a
relatively low profile so they may be easier to site close to residential
loads. 37
 Some Comparisons of CSP Systems
During the early stages of development, and as technologies
begin to be deployed, economic risks are incurred and the
scale of the investments required can be an important
determinant of the speed with which markets expand. Small-
scale systems cost less per modular unit so the financial
risks associated with the first few units are similarly small.

Dish\Stirling systems appear to be appropriately sized at

about 25 kW each, but economies of scale play a bigger role
for troughs and towers and they may be most economical in
unit sizes of about 100 MW. It is easier to find investors
willing to help develop small-scale systems, working out the
bugs and improving the technology as they go along, than to
assemble the hundreds of millions of dollars needed for a
single trough or tower system. Wind turbines, with their
explosive growth, have certainly benefited from the fact that38
they too are small in scale.
 BIOMASS FOR ELECTRICITY

Biomass energy systems utilize solar energy that has been

captured and stored in plant material during photosynthesis.

While the overall efficiency of conversion of sunlight to stored

chemical energy is low, plants have already solved the two
key problems associated with all solar energy technologies-
that is, how to collect the energy when it is available, and how
to store it for use when the sun isn’t shining.

Plants have also very nicely dealt with the greenhouse

problem since the carbon released when they use that stored
energy for respiration is the same carbon they extracted
during photosynthesis. That is, they get energy with no net
carbon emissions.
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 BIOMASS FOR ELECTRICITY

While there is already a sizable agricultural industry

devoted to growing crops specifically for their energy
content, it is almost entirely devoted to converting plant
material into alcohol fuels for motor vehicles.

On the other hand, biomass for electricity production is

essentially all waste residues from agricultural and forestry
industries and, to some extent, municipal solid wastes.

Since it is based on wastes that must be disposed,

biomass feedstocks for electricity production may have low-
cost, no-cost, or even negative-cost advantages.

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 BIOMASS FOR ELECTRICITY

Currently there are about 14 GW of installed generation

capacity powered by biomass in the world, with about half of
that being in the United States. About two-thirds of the
biomass power plants in the United States cogenerate both
electricity and useful heat.

Since transporting their rather disbursed fuel sources over any

great distances could be prohibitively expensive, biomass
power plants tend to be small and located near their fuel
source, so they aren’t able to take advantage of the economies
of scale that go with large steam plants.

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 BIOMASS FOR ELECTRICITY
To offset the higher cost of smaller plants, lower-grade steel
and other materials are often used, which requires lower
operating temperatures and pressures and hence lower
efficiencies.

Moreover, biomass fuels tend to have high water content and

are often wet when burned, which means that wasted energy
goes up the stack as water vapor. The net result is that existing
biomass plants tend to have rather low efficiencies-typically
less than 20%.

Even though the fuel may be very inexpensive, those low

efficiencies translate to reasonably expensive electricity, which
is currently around 9 cents/kWh.

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 BIOMASS FOR ELECTRICITY

An alternative approach to building small, inefficient plants for

biomass power production is to burn biomass along with coal in
slightly modified, conventional steam-cycle power plants.
Called co-firing, this method is an economical way to utilize
biomass fuels in relatively efficient plants. And, since biomass
burns cleaner than coal, overall emissions are correspondingly
reduced in co-fired facilities.

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 BIOMASS FOR ELECTRICITY

New combined-cycle power plants don’t need to be large to be

efficient, so it is interesting to contemplate a new generation of
biomass power plants based on gas turbines rather than
steam. The problem is, however, that gas turbines cannot run
directly on biomass fuels since the resulting combustion
products would damage the turbine blades, so an intermediate
step would have to be introduced. By gasifying the fuel first and
then cleaning the gas before combustion, it would be possible
to use biomass with gas turbines.

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Micro-Hydro Power
Systems

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 Hydro Power
• Hydropower is a very significant renewable
source in generating electricity.
• It accounts for 19% of the global production of
electricity.
• In some developing countries in Asia, Africa, it
accounts for more than 90%.
• In USA, it accounts for 9% which is more than ten
times larger than all the other renewables
combined.

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 Hydro-Power Classification
• There is no internationally agreed ranges for
different categories of hydro-power plants as
large, small, mini, micro and pico. The table
below gives the ranges accepted by most
countries.
• Large > 30 MW; 2MW<Small<30MW
• 100kW<Mini<2MW; 10kW<Micro<100kW
• Pico <10kW

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Water Cycle

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 Components of a Run-of-the-River
type Micro-Hydro Power System

Run-of-the River type systems do not have a dam and a

reservoir. As such the ecological damage is minimum. Water
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is simply diverted by a weir and intake to the canal.
Components of a Run-of-the-River
type Micro-Hydro Power System

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 Components of a Run-of-the-River
type Micro-Hydro Power System

• an intake or weir to divert stream flow from the water

course
• a canal/pipeline to carry the water flow to the forebay from
the intake
• a forebay tank and trash rack to filter debris and prevent it
from being drawn into the turbine at the penstock pipe intake
• a penstock pipe to convey the water to the powerhouse
• a powerhouse, in which the turbine and generator convert
the power of the water into electricity
• a tailrace through which the water is released back to the
river or stream

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 Energy in Water

At any point on the water flow, the total energy

contained is given by

Energy = Potential Energy + Pressure Energy +

Kinetic Energy

Potential Energy = m.g.z

where m is the mass of water (kg), g is gravitational
constant = 9.81 m/s2, z is the height above a
reference level (m)
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 Kinetic Energy = ½ . m. v2
where v = speed of water in m/s

Pressure Energy = m⋅p/ρ

Where p =pressure in N/m2 (Pascal) and
ρ= density of water (kg/m3)

The ratio Energy/Weight is called ‘Head’

measured in meters (m).

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 Why Pressure Energy = m⋅⋅p/ρ ?

Area: A
State: p, ρ
Velocity: V

w& pressure = F • S& = pAVvelocity

m&
m& = ρ AV velocity ⇒ V velocity =
ρA
& m&
w& pressure = F •S = p
ρ
m
multiply with time : E = p
ρ 54
55
• Power available from water at the hydro-turbine is given by

Where Q is the water flow rate passing through the turbine

(m3/s).

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 Example
A 10 cm diameter penstock (i.e. pipe) delivers 0.01
m3/s of water through an elevation change of 30 m.
The pressure in the pipe is 200 kN/m2 at the
powerhouse.

What fraction of the available head is lost in the pipe?

What power is available for the turbine?
The reference elevation level is taken as that of the
power house.

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 Solution
At the Higher elevation, pressure and speed are zero.
Therefore head is only due to the elevation.
Total Available Head = 30m
At the power house, elevation is zero. Therefore, head
is only due to pressure and speed.

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Theoretical maximum power delivered by pipeline
occurs when pipe losses are one third of the gross head
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64
 Pelton Turbines
Pelton turbines are impulse turbines where one or more jets
impinge on a wheel carrying on its periphery a large number
of buckets. Each jet issues through a nozzle with a needle
(or spear) valve to control the flow. They are only
used for relatively high heads.

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The axes of the nozzles are in the plane of the runner. To
stop the turbine (e.g. when the turbine approaches the
runaway speed due to load rejection) the jet may be
deflected by a plate so that it does not impinge on the
buckets. In this way the needle valve can be closed very
slowly, so that overpressure surge in the pipeline is kept to
an acceptable minimum.
Any kinetic energy leaving the runner is lost and so the
buckets are designed to keep exit velocities to a minimum.
The turbine casing only needs to protect the surroundings
against water splashing and therefore can be very light.
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The efficiency of the original Pelton design suffers somewhat
at higher flow rates because water trying to leave the buckets
tends to interfere with the incoming jet. In the modern design,
the buckets are carefully designed to extract as much of the
water’s kinetic energy as possible while leaving enough
energy in the water to enable it to leave the buckets without 67
interfering with the incoming water.
Turgo Turbines

Another impulse turbine, called a Turgo wheel, is similar to a

Pelton, but the runner has a different shape and the incoming jet
of water hits the blades somewhat from one side, allowing exiting
water to leave from the other, which greatly reduces the
interference problem. The Turgo design also allows the jet to
spray several buckets at once; this spins the turbine at a higher
speed than a Pelton, which makes it somewhat more compatible
with generator speeds.

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 Cross-flow turbines

There is another impulse turbine, called a cross-flow turbine,

which is especially useful in low-to-medium head situations (5-
20 m). This turbine is also known as a Banki, Mitchell, or
Ossberger turbine—names that reflect its inventor, principal
developer, and current manufacturer. These turbines are
especially simple to fabricate, which makes them popular in
developing countries where they can be built locally. 69
 Cross-flow turbines
Water enters the turbine, directed by one or more guide-
vanes located in a transition piece upstream of the runner,
and through the first stage of the runner which runs full with a
small degree of reaction. Flow leaving the first stage attempt
to cross the open centre of the turbine. As the flow enters the
second stage, a compromise direction is achieved which
causes significant shock losses.

The runner is built from two or more parallel disks connected

near their rims by a series of curved blades. Their efficiency
lower than conventional turbines, but remains at practically
the same level for a wide range of flows and heads (typically
about 80%).
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Reaction turbines

A Francis turbine has a runner with

fixed buckets (vanes), usually nine or
more. Water is introduced just above
the runner and all around it and then
falls through, causing it to spin.

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 Reaction turbines

A propeller turbine generally has a runner with three to

six blades in which the water contacts all of the blades
constantly. Picture a boat propeller running in a pipe.
The pitch of the blades may be fixed or adjustable.
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