Hydropower Reliability and Performance
About
Hydropower Fleet Intelligence
Overview/Objective
To overcome the current gaps in hydropower fleet management data, researchers at ORNL are developing data-driven best practices that can be shared with hydropower facilities to optimize value and reliability of these energy facilities.
Results
The research team, in partnership with hydropower operators, developed a standardized process for integrating different types of data and information across a hydropower facility, and assessed the availability and sufficiency of information related to maintenance costs, facility health, and operations and maintenance (O&M) practices. The team’s efforts have revealed insights into how hydropower facility operations practices impact asset conditions as well as operations and maintenance costs.
To determine the best practices of fleet performance, the research team performed data sufficiency assessments of the Electric Utility Cost Group (EUCG) cost database, the Hydropower Asset Management Partnership (HydroAMP) asset condition database, and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s Generating Availability Data System (NERC GADS) to review outage performance statistics.
Key outcomes include:
- In partnership with hydropower operators, ORNL is developing tools for facility and fleet-wide data integration and analysis, supporting predictive and smart asset management practices.
- Having partnered with the EUCG Committee since 2007, ORNL performs an annual top performers analysis and benchmarking report.
- The HydroAMP data sufficiency assessment led to the development and implementation of a data improvement guide to increase the robustness and clarity of the dataset.
- Through the NERC GADS working group, the project team is providing input on the design data fields necessary to ease accessibility and increase participation.
Impact
This research focuses on synthesizing new insights for hydropower decision makers from existing, yet disparate datasets. Through partnerships and assessments, the ORNL research team is executing specific use cases that offer tangible courses of action in alignment with defined strategies, metrics, indicator models, and other foundational operational tactics. One such use case—developed in partnership with Pacific Gas & Electric—examines the operations and maintenance effects of intensifying dispatch variability.
Other use cases include:
- The effect of parameter uncertainty on Whole Life Cost Model results for hydropower asset replacement strategies
- Scoping of the Department of Energy’s role in hydropower digitalization and advanced condition monitoring
- Coordinating database discovery with the ORNL HydroSource project
The HFI project has significantly contributed to modernizing hydropower O&M by developing methods to provide detailed insights into asset health, failure rates, and maintenance needs. Furthermore, the team has made data analytics for hydropower applications more accessible by publishing software modules that support prototypical data management practices and advanced analytics technologies for hydropower O&M. These efforts enable hydropower decision-makers to optimize O&M practices, ultimately enhancing their facilities’ reliability and efficiency.https://www.ornl.gov/content/hydropower-reliability-performance
Contact
Pradeep Ramuhalli, Group Leader
The Digital Twin for Hydropower Systems
Overview/Objective
The U.S. hydropower fleet, with an average machine age of 64 years, will require modernization to sustain and improve the value and reliability of the nation’s longest-serving energy technology. To assist hydropower asset managers, owners, and other stakeholders in enhancing hydropower capabilities, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydropower and Hydrokinetic Office (H2O) directed Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to initiate a Digital Twin for Hydropower Systems – Open Platform Framework (DTHS-OPF) research effort as part of its long-term effort to support digital twin technology.
As the name implies, a digital twin is a virtual representation of a real-world system—in this case, a hydropower facility. Monitoring the actual facility and comparing it to its virtual model, or digital twin, enables robust control and optimization of the physical facility, and enables the virtual model to learn and evolve. Digital twin technology has also been used by other industries, including manufacturing, automotive, and electrical.
The open platform network must integrate data from legacy systems and devices and be interoperable with new sensors and equipment.
Impact
Digitizing hydropower is expected to reduce operating costs, improve reliability, address increasing operational complexity, and provide greater grid resiliency.
The DTHS-OPF research project is an early step within a long-term vision that includes development and widespread adoption of an extensible DTHS-OPF as a best practice and baseline digitalization technology for optimal design, operation, and management of hydropower assets to ensure and enhance reliability, performance, and value.
Testing of Hydropower Technology
Overview/Objective
For over 100 years, hydropower has provided an efficient source of energy. Future developments will come mostly from small hydropower facilities – those generating between 10 and 30 megawatts of electricity – and it will play a crucial role in complementing other more variable and intermittent resources (e.g., solar and wind) by providing flexible and dispatchable generation and energy storage.
Recent changes in the global energy sector have prompted the need for technological innovations to address performance, reliability, safety, and environmental standards. While larger hydropower plants have well-established designs and validation processes, small hydropower facility owners must often weigh the cost of testing new technology with potential revenue.
Tasked by the Department of Energy’s Hydropower and Hydrokinetic Office (H2O), researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have released a new report that identifies the key hydropower testing gaps and recommends two initiatives to improve and expand on existing testing capabilities in the United States aimed at filling those gaps.
Results
ORNL categorized testing according to physical design hierarchy, design objectives, and test factors. This framework was applied to existing capabilities at national laboratories, universities, private testing centers, and federal agencies.
Information on testing needs and existing capabilities was captured through web searches and a public request for information that received responses from 19 stakeholder groups. Most of these capabilities can already cover several hydropower testing categories, including model-scale, flow-through testing of powertrains and conveyances for efficiency and reliability. However, few or no locations have testing technologies at full scale for high–technology readiness level innovations that involve high hydraulic capacity.
Key testing gaps:
- access to full-scale testing
- validation of environmental mitigation technology and a coordinated effort with local communities
- testing for flexible operations over extended durations to ensure hydropower’s value in the evolving, national electrical grid
- testing and validation of newly manufactured and advanced materials to enable innovative designs
Recommended initiatives:
- Hydropower Testing Network – The use of existing testing capabilities for early-stage innovations could be promoted by creating an online testing network platform and a grant funding model. The program could be modeled on successful industrial support mechanisms, such as the H2O’s TEAMER (Testing and Expertise for Marine Energy) network for marine energy technology development.
- Full-Scale Hydropower Testing Facility – New testing infrastructure could be developed to pursue design validation at full-scale, flow-through conditions and with capabilities to monitor transient and dynamic responses for sustained durations. The facilities should be able to support validation of environmental metrics and unconventional material and manufacturing techniques. Constructing facilities at an existing federal structure, such as at a non-powered dam or navigation lock, could reduce costs and save time.
Impact
The establishment of a federally supported network of well-coordinated hydropower testing activities, along with the development of a comprehensive full-scale testing facility, will ensure the systemic validation of innovative technologies, which would otherwise fail to approach the market. Technological validation is essential to unlock the H2O’s goals of widespread commercialization of innovations that can improve hydropower flexibility and energy storage, use of advanced manufacturing and materials, and environmental mitigations.
The initiatives will directly benefit hydropower facility owners and operators who do not possess risk-bearing capacity to adopt new untested technologies, and manufacturers who do not have the internal resources to test nascent technologies. The validation and consequent commercialization of these technologies will be key to promoting the hydropower growth in the United States, strengthening the country’s energy system.
Contact
Kevin M Stewart, Hydrodynamics and Hydraulics Engineer
Advanced Manufacturing for Hydropower
Overview/Objectives
Over 100 years ago, the hydropower industry, which today generates nearly 6% of all U.S. energy, was built using traditional manufacturing processes. Surging energy demand, higher material costs, and supply chain hurdles have led researchers to rethink manufacturing to address higher repair and maintenance costs, lost revenue due to necessary plant outages, and a lag between current manufacturing capabilities and the technological innovations needed to propel the industry forward.
To ensure hydropower’s continued success as a resilient, secure energy source, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Hydropower and Hydrokinetic Office (H2O) tasked Oak Ridge National Laboratory to explore how advanced manufacturing and materials could more easily and cost-effectively modernize the existing fleet and facilitate further innovations in design.
To kick things off, ORNL hosted an in-person workshop in 2022 at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF). Participants representing industry, research, and academia discussed current challenges, including the cost and availability of replacement parts and new supply chain backlogs, as well as how large-scale advanced manufacturing and novel materials could modernize the hydropower fleet – often at a lower cost and in a shorter time frame. ORNL researchers also collected feedback from other key stakeholders in targeted interviews.
Results
The 2022 workshop resulted in the creation of a report called “Advanced Manufacturing and Materials for Hydropower: Challenges and Opportunities,” which was released in March 2023. In it, the ORNL team identified the primary manufacturing challenges confronting the hydropower industry:
- Aging infrastructure and components – Repairs are needed on four main systems: turbines and generators, pressurized conduits and gates, structures and foundations, and electrical systems and controls.
- Supply chain issues – Most high-quality large metal components are no longer manufactured in the United States, leading to shortages of materials and electronics and significantly longer lead times.
- Environmental mitigations – Transitioning to more environmentally-friendly hydropower will require adoption of new technologies with additional costs.
- Evolving operational standards – Environmental change and increasing energy demands will necessitate new operating strategies and technologies to maximize hydropower’s value to the grid, as well as innovative development to capture the available hydropower potential.
The report also identified advanced manufacturing capabilities that could be employed as an alternative to current manufacturing processes:
- Additive manufacturing – Constructing parts layer-by-layer can optimize the design and enable manufacturing of parts on site. Potential applications include embedded sensors, aerating vents, and cooling channels.
- Novel machining and casting processes – Combining additive and subtractive manufacturing, as well as 3D printing of sand molds can help return production of large parts back to the U.S. This could enable faster production and result in higher-quality parts.
- Innovative materials – These lower-cost/higher performance material alternatives are often lighter, stronger, more resistant to cavitation and corrosion, easier to repair, and more environmentally friendly. Potential applications include runners, composite bearings, pipelines and conduits, and wicket gates.
- Novel coating processes – New coatings can mitigate many common failures of systems and parts, such as those resulting from biofouling, corrosion, and cavitation. These new processes may reduce toxicity and improve component durability.
Impact
In February 2024, the H2O released a guiding strategy document based on the ORNL researchers’ work. Continued collaboration is expected to provide further insights into the specific challenges facing the U.S. hydropower fleet and identify those advanced manufacturing processes and materials that may best address these challenges. The dissemination of these findings may stimulate adoption of technological innovations that further position hydropower as an independent, resilient source of energy that is safe and secure for local communities, eco-systems, and the environment.
Contact
Scott T DeNeale, Water Resources Engineer – Research Staff
