Site visit: How a digital twin can future-proof European hydropower plants

The 70-year-old Wały Śląskie Hydropower Plant in Poland is a demonstrator site aiming to pave a digital path to ensure hydropower is a sustainable part of Europe's flexible future energy mix.

Enlit on the Road visited Brzeg Dolny and Wrocław in the Lower Silesia Province to learn more about how a new digital twin will help modernise the Wały Śląskie plant - and many others like it - as part of the EU-funded D-HYDROFLEX project.

The hydropower plant, operated by Tauron Ekoenergia, was commissioned in 1959. It's a run-of-river plant that operates on analogue systems, making it a perfect fit for the project.

Przemysław Janik, an Energy Systems Expert at Tauron, explained that many plants across Europe are analogue and over 50 years old. Digitalising these old plants is therefore essential to ensure they can continue to provide a flexible and reliable source of power.

Janik explained that digitalisation of the plant would provide greater reliability and safer plant operations.

"We also want to increase the efficiency of the production of power and we also get more information about all the processes in the power plant," he shared.

Also of interest:
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The journey from analogue to digital

Tauron Ekoenergia together with the Wrocław University of Science and Technology is tasked with the digitalisation of the Wały Śląskie Plant.

D-HYDROFLEX will develop the digital twin of the hydro system and will test decision-making algorithms, implement real-time turbine discharge measurement methods, install efficiency meters for real-time operation, and create adaptive mechanisms for turbine operation under varying conditions.

Beyond efficiency, the digital twin will improve predictive maintenance scheduling and the sustainability of the plant.

The Wrocław University faculty of power and mechanical engineering was selected to participate in the project due to their experience with turbo machinery design and optimisation.

Dr Artur Machalski, Assistant Professor at Wrocław University, is working on the project and explained the broad scope of the digital twin. "It includes the digital model of the turbine and dam [also] the data to be gathered, the mathematical models created for the system [and] the operations simulations with those models."

Machalski explained that the task is a challenging one, as they are not only creating the 3D models, but they also need to recreate and digitise the plant documentation.

Said Machalski: "For older turbines, we lack accurate documentation, that is why we need 3D scanning technology to create accurate models..."

The analogue information needs to be turned into an accurate 3D model of the plant, added Machalski, "we need to construct the geometry and create mathematical models that describe the operation of the given part of the plant.

"That's why the scope of D-HYDROFLEX is so broad, that's why we work on so many different tools...we need the data and in order to gather these data we need to switch to digitised versions of the systems."

Digitalisation towards sustainability for European hydropower plants

Janik emphasised that the D-HYDROFLEX is not only focused on digitalising plant operations. One of the core goals is to promote sustainability in the hydropower sector.

"We can't just keep building new hydropower plants because of the environmental impact, we need to make the most of the current plants in a more efficient way," explained Janik.

He added that they are equally focused on protecting nature, especially fish that move up and downstream through the plant.

"It's also important to care about all the technical aspects so that there will be no leakage and no environmental problem, no negative interaction with the beautiful surroundings here...and when we have the digital twin, we will know exactly what's going on, we can ring a bell when there is a problem..."

The Wały Śląskie Plant is one of seven hydroelectric power plants across five European countries taking part in the D-HYDROFLEX project.

Both Janik and Machalski agree that this project holds promise for many analogue hydropower plants across Europe and forms a critical part in future-proofing the hydropower sector.

Janik concluded: "Year after year we have less water, the change is constant, it's visible and it's alarming. We have to use our resources in a better way..."