Abstract The authors present a combined method using statistical and numerical models for selecting a pump running as turbine in micro hydro plants. The data of the site (head and capacity) allow calculating two coefficients, C Q and C H , which identify the pump to use successfully as turbine in that place. A one dimensional model, starting from data available on the pumps manufacturers catalogues, reconstructs a virtual geometry of the PAT, then calculates the performances curves, head vs. capacity, efficiency vs. capacity. The procedure has been applied with the aim to select a PAT recovering energy from a pipeline whose characteristic curve is known.