On the continent of North America, steam-electric or hydroelectric generating units provide the bulk of the energy used by electric utility systems. It sometimes happens that one type predominates in certain utilities while it may be virtually entirely absent in others. As a result, the system engineer and power plant designer may get fully acquainted with the issues related to the location, design, and system interconnection for one type of plant while becoming less acquainted with those related to the other. Although it is believed that the readers of this site are well aware of the issues with steam-electric plants, they might find it interesting to learn more about some of the design differences that can occur with hydroelectric plants. This paper gives the information of converting hydro energy into electrical energy.
