As renewable energy becomes more integrated into the grid, hydropower is expected to play a crucial role in addressing intermittency and balancing requirements. Well-maintained assets in hydroelectric projects (HEPs) can provide significant long-term benefits compared to other energy sources. Therefore, digitalising HEPs can greatly enhance the value of current assets and manage an ageing fleet in an evolving energy landscape. Digital HEPs offer various benefits, including increased productivity, enhanced safety and cost savings. This is achieved by reducing operations and maintenance (O&M) expenses, maintaining efficient operations and enhancing project management.
Need for digital technologies
The integration of digital technologies in HEPs holds significant potential for maximising asset value and enhancing productivity. It optimises O&M costs while enhancing plant safety and efficiency. Digital controls improve the performance of turbines, plants and equipment, leading to reduced O&M costs, increased operational efficiency and improved asset management. They provide more accurate measurements of input and output parameters, such as flow, pressure and power, enhancing the overall efficiency of HEPs and contributing to improved reservoir management.
In a digital power plant, continuous data collection enables the analysis and identification of performance deviations and potential faults. Smart software can detect faults before they occur, minimising project downtime. Advanced real-time monitoring systems can identify normal plant function parameters and raise alerts in case of anomalies, facilitating a shift from corrective to preventive and predictive maintenance strategies. This transition has significantly reduced equipment breakdowns and plant outages, resulting in cost savings, increased generation and improved performance. Digital solutions enable remote plant operation, while analytical software provides operators with comprehensive oversight and management of maintenance activities, leading to smoother scheduling, better planning, shorter maintenance lead times and increased accuracy in required maintenance work.
Digitalisation also enhances the integration of HEPs with other renewable energy sources, improving decision-making and overall operational efficiency. Moreover, advanced technologies can be utilised to modernise operations in ageing HEPs. Continuous data collection and analysis in HEPs can proactively identify parameter deviations long before faults occur. Digital maintenance systems can learn normal operating modes and detect deviations, optimising maintenance schedules well in advance–an exponential leap in predictive maintenance. By analysing the entire plant in real time, rather than isolated parameters, this approach enhances maintenance efficiency.
With more data input, the system’s deviation and fault detection accuracy improve. Digital controllers enhance HEP efficiency by precisely measuring input and output parameters such as flow, pressure and power, enabling more accurate adjustments in regulators. As HEPs integrate hybrid technologies like solar and wind, requiring operation across various efficiency points, digitalisation becomes increasingly crucial.
Digital technologies also improve generation forecasting, aiding operators in short- to mid-term scheduling, especially for flexible generation. Utilising digital tools, operators can enhance real-time flexibility, boosting system reliability and increasing revenues from flexibility markets. Furthermore, real-time monitoring and advanced data analysis shift plant O&M from preventive to predictive, reducing forced outages and extending maintenance intervals significantly.
Key technologies
Digital twin: Digital twin technology utilises artificial intelligence (AI), mathematical models and real-time plant operation data, including upstream and downstream hydrology measurements, to create virtual models of HEPs. These digital twins replicate plant operations in a virtual environment, enabling simulation of different operational scenarios. As intelligent models, they learn plant behaviour through input data, improving accuracy over time with additional data and measurements. Additionally, addressing the acceptability concerns associated with HEPs, given their potential environmental and social impact, is crucial. Augmented reality technology can assist in identifying and mitigating these impacts by creating virtual models of HEPs before construction.
AI and ML: Leveraging insights and trends from advanced analytics, AI and machine learning (ML) can inform and digitalise O&M activities. By learning failure modes and employing fault tree analysis, AI and ML facilitate predictive maintenance, minimising the frequency of asset health checks and identifying risks early. When combined with simulation, they optimise the allocation of capital and operational expenditures.
IoT: Internet of things (IoT) enhances HEP operations through real-time monitoring and detailed asset health insights. Embedded sensors play a crucial role in this process by measuring various parameters such as wear, vibration and temperature. These sensors collect high frequency time-series data, which is then analysed to assess asset conditions, identify trends and detect potential issues. By continuously monitoring these metrics, IoT-enabled systems provide real-time alerts for anomalies, support predictive maintenance strategies and automate reporting processes. This comprehensive sensor data not only improves visibility into the plant’s operational status but also enables more effective maintenance scheduling and optimisation of plant performance.
AR/VR: Augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) are revolutionising HEP management and development. VR creates 3D models for simulating operations and visualising design changes before construction. AR overlays digital information on the physical world, assisting maintenance with real-time data and visual guides. Together, AR and VR enhance design processes, streamline maintenance and improve stakeholder engagement by providing immersive, interactive tools for both planning and operation.
Remote monitoring: Remote monitoring technologies such as drones and computer vision have the capacity to transform asset inspection processes. They minimise the requirement for human personnel to assess equipment condition, especially in remote or hazardous locations. When integrated with AI and ML, drones can autonomously detect issues. During the construction phase, drones and diving robots equipped with sensors and actuators facilitate progress monitoring and accurate digital surface modelling.
SCADA: The supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system serves as a crucial component of HEP digitalisation. It empowers power plant operators to execute various plant operations remotely, including valve and switch operations, as well as alarm monitoring. SCADA systems are utilised for controlling, monitoring and analysing devices and processes. They facilitate both remote and on-site data collection, enabling developers to access and control turbine data from off-site locations and allowing companies to manage their HEPs remotely.
Digital workforce management: Digital solutions for workforce management streamline routine tasks for O&M staff, including operation scheduling and documentation. Mobile digital solutions replace traditional machinery books, allowing staff to input maintenance data directly on-site. This data is then automatically reported to centrally managed O&M platforms, reducing administrative workload and ensuring clarity and efficiency in maintenance processes.
DCS: A distributed control system (DCS) offers a scalable digital solution, empowering plant operators to oversee, control and safeguard equipment while maximising productivity from plant assets. It encompasses a network of instrumentation, including sensors, flow switches, and transducers, delivering real-time information to operators. This enables comprehensive control of machinery and auxiliaries from a central control room, often situated remotely. With a DCS, manual intervention is eliminated.
Advanced CFD capabilities: Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a potent modelling tool renowned for its accurate predictions of internal flow. It anticipates potential flow issues and enhances the geometry of turbine components, ensuring efficiency. CFD is instrumental in evaluating alternative turbine designs, allowing for optimisation prior to final experimental testing of selected designs.
Data analytics: Big data is employed to extract crucial insights and trends from vast data sets. It plays a pivotal role in consolidating large volumes of data from various sources, facilitating the integration of diverse energy sources and market data into production planning. Additionally, big data management is essential for handling incoming data utilised in inflow forecasting tools. On the other hand, advanced analytics leverages the detailed data granularity from IoT devices to detect underperformance and failure modes early on. These insights can enhance productivity levels, from individual machines to the entire power plant. Analytical proficiency is required to process incoming data related to inflow and production forecasts of other energy sources and market conditions, optimising production for maximum revenue. Furthermore, historical trend analyses can identify weather patterns that may be exploited in the future for production planning purposes.
Challenges and the way forward
Digital applications entail investment, with varying costs depending on their scale. Ageing HEPs nearing the end of their lifespan face constraints on capital expenditure for replacement and refurbishment. Additionally, the heightened connectivity and reliance on digital technologies expose HEPs to cybersecurity risks, necessitating robust security measures to safeguard critical infrastructure against potential cyberattacks. Furthermore, there are infrastructural hurdles to the digitalisation of HEPs, such as inadequate network connectivity between power stations and remote centres, concerns over commercial confidentiality and insufficient IT infrastructure among generation companies. Skill gaps present another challenge, as the rapid pace of technological advancements demands enhanced IT knowledge and experience for the design, implementation and operation of digital technologies.
Overcoming these challenges and encouraging HEPs to embrace emerging technologies and innovative approaches can unlock the full potential of digitalisation and enhance operational performance while addressing cybersecurity risks.
Overall, digital technologies have wide-ranging applications across the hydropower sector, spanning the entire plant life cycle–from planning and design to construction and O&M–to meet high-level objectives of safety, sustainability and commercial viability. The continuous evolution of digital solutions promises to further enhance the value of hydropower assets, ensuring their pivotal role in a diversified and dynamic energy grid.
Akanksha Chandrakar