National Laboratories Advance Effort To Create Digital Models of Hydropower Systems To Support Plant Operations and Decision Making

As part of an effort to support digital twin technology and hydropower industry digitalization, researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) elicited information from hydropower stakeholders to scope digital models for hydropower systems. 

The goal of this effort is to collect data from real-world hydropower systems and continuously update models for various components of hydropower systems. This will allow hydropower plant operators, hydropower systems equipment manufacturers, academics, and other stakeholders to optimize real-world plant operations, test potential operations, and use real-time data for fault diagnosis and systems health monitoring.

These efforts are underway as part of a Digital Twin for Hydropower Systems–Open Platform Framework research project. Researchers also defined the appropriate scope for the framework and published a value proposition to help developers determine the economic benefit of a hydropower project. 

Once the framework is online, users can develop unique digital twins for their systems. With continuous data and feedback, the Digital Twin for Hydropower Systems–Open Platform Framework can develop capacities for autonomy to learn from and reason about its environment, creating a continuously evolving digital profile of physical hydropower assets and processes.

As the hydropower industry moves toward full-scale digitalization, the long-term vision of this project is to support widespread adoption of a Digital Twin for Hydropower Systems–Open Platform Framework as a best practice for the design, operation, and management of hydropower assets. This effort will help the U.S. hydropower industry enhance reliability, performance, and value, and continue to serve as an integrated piece of the country’s power grid.