Overview of ground-based generator towers as cloud seeding facilities to optimize water resources in the Larona Basin

Abstract

The Larona River Basin which cover an area of 2477 km2, including the three cascading lakes: Matano, Mahalona, and Towuti Lakes, is a strategic watershed which acts as the water resource for three hydropower plants that supply 420 Megawatt of electricity to power a nickel processing plant and its supporting facilities and electricity need of the surrounding communities. The maximum and minimum operating levels of Towuti Lake are 319.6 meters (asl) and 317.45 meters (asl) respectively. Total live storage between these two elevations is 1,231,500 m3. Currently, the operation average outflow from Towuti Lake to the power plants is 130.1 m3/second which is resulting in a total annual outflow volume of 4,103,000 m3. By comparing the outflow volume with the live storage volume, it is obvious that present live storage has a limited capability to carry over the capacity from wet to dry years. During a dry year, the outflow drops to 100 m3/second. Thus, the optimization of water resources management in the Larona Basin is important to fulfil the need to produce the energy sources. To deal with the decrease of the Lakes water level, the Weather Modification Technology in the form of cloud seeding is needed to produce rain that will increase the water volume in the Lakes. The dispersion of cloud seeding material into the targeted clouds can be done by surface seeding using the Ground-Based Generator (GBG) which utilize towers to release cloud seeding materials. The tower locations should be in certain altitude or higher locations and amounts in order to operate effectively with optimum results. The water discharges generated from the process is expected in accordance with the planning. The weather modification process is inefficient when the discharge is overflow the spillway channel. Cost incurred is in approximate of US$ $11,133,258.36 if the company is utilizing Diesel Power Plant and Steam Power Plant instead of the weather modification technology.