Digital solutions for improved performance and flexibility of HYDROpower assets

The D-HYDROFLEX project will advance excellence in research on digital technology for hydropower paving the way towards more efficient, more sustainable, and more competitive hydropower plants in modern power markets. D-HYDROFLEX will develop a toolkit for digitally ‘renovating’ the existing hydroelectric power plants based on sensors, digital twins, AI algorithms, hybridization modelling (power-to-hydrogen), cloud-edge computing and image processing. The core pillars of D-HYDROFLEX project are: (i) Digitalisation: Leveraging SCADA data to create a digital twin for hydro plants, enabling predictive maintenance and real-time monitoring. Advanced technologies like predictive analytics, neural networks, and CRISP-DM in Python aid decision support. Data privacy and cyber-resilience are ensured through the F-box security tool based on deep learning. (ii) Flexibility: Enhancing hydro plant performance using digital twin technology. It optimizes energy production, detects faults early for predictive maintenance, and ensures flexibility to adapt to energy system demands. The project also explores hybridization with hydrogen storage for innovative flexibility provision, aiming to revolutionize hydro plant operations and promote new business models. (iii) Sustainability: Supporting biodiversity and environmental impact monitoring. Acoustic and image cameras with respective algorithms will collect and analyse the data for fish species analysis. Turbine discharge measurement technology in Polish demo will be used for water usage understanding. Environmental indicators in Spanish demo will be used to improve regulatory compliance monitoring for hydro plant operations and environmental planning.