The new role of sustainable hydropower in flexible energy systems and its technical evolution through innovation and digitalization

Hydropower has played an important role in Europe in recent decades, offering a unique combination of safe, low-cost, and clean power generation. Today, it is still one of the largest renewable energy sources (RES), accounting for about 35% of RES electricity generation. However, grid stability is threatened by the increasing amount of undispatchable RES. Flexibility and dynamics such as energy storage and rapid response are urgently needed to achieve EU policy goals. In such a context, hydropower can play a key role, not only as a provider of regulated renewable energy but also due to its ability to balance a renewable energy system in the short term and the medium/long term by pumped storage technology. All these aspects underline the new role of hydropower, which aims to strengthen grid stability and power supply resilience and to enable higher penetration of volatile RES. In this context, the aim of this paper is to demonstrate the role of hydropower at the European level as well as the needs and opportunities of modernization to fully exploit its potential. In particular, this study provides, the assessment of the today flexibility offered by hydropower to the power system at the European level by leveraging a database of information collected through the participants to the working groups of the COST Action Pen@Hydropower which includes stakeholders in the hydropower sector of 34 European countries. The study confirms the key role of hydropower in future energy scenarios with 30 % of the flexibility demand at all time scales met by hydropower. Furthermore, the paper presents a review of the digitalization solutions and innovative technologies that support the growth of a new generation of sustainable hydropower together with the modernization opportunities for existing hydropower plants. The results of this work have practical implications for stakeholders in the hydropower sector and policymakers as it provides evidence at the European scale of the role of hydropower technology in balancing the power system and the need to have supportive frameworks and adequate markets to fully exploit the European hydropower potential to achieve the energy transition goals.