Performance and Health Monitoring for Hydroelectric Powerplants (PHMHydro)

Hydroelectric powerplants (HEPs) are the backbone of the electricity grid in Norway, contributing to more than 90% of the total power production. Owing to the exceptional Norwegian terrain and water resources, the HEPs have significantly contributed to Norway's industrial development over the past century. As EU gears towards increased reliance on renewable energy, with 32% of total energy requirement from renewable energy sources by 2030, Norway has the capacity to play a greater role in the EU grid as the ‘green battery of Europe. The electricity grid of the future needs reliable energy sources that can rapidly meet the capacity when for example, the wind power is low, and store excess energy produced when wind speeds are high. Norway’s abundant hydropower has the capacity to meet these requirements as power production can be increased rapidly and energy can be stored e.g. by pumping water back to reservoirs. However, to achieve this, the HEPs should have high reliability and efficiency to ensure a stable grid. Continuous monitoring of the condition of the HEP critical equipment like turbines and generators, and efficiency of the equipment ensures that the HEPs are operated profitably and without unwanted shutdowns.

The project PHMHydro aims at building the fundament for such performance and health monitoring architecture for HEPs that is scalable to multiple HEP components and multiple HEPs. This includes evaluating novel sensing methods, developing new algorithms using physics and artificial intelligence (AI), and an architecture for handling these algorithms in cloud/fog deployment. The project is collaborative research from the University of Agder (UiA), NORCE Norwegian Research Centre AS, and the industry partners Agder Energi AS and Volue Industrial IoT AS. The developed algorithms and architecture will be evaluated in a pilot HEP with Agder Energi AS, and Volue Industrial IoT AS will be involved in instrumentation and evaluation of the sensing technologies with respect to their suitability for Hydropower plants.