HydroCen is a research centre focusing on hydropower technology in combination with environmental conditions and market aspects. Its main objective is to enable the hydropower sector to meet complex challenges and exploit new opportunities through innovative technological solutions.
HydroCen is a Centre for Environment-friendly Energy Research (FME), an incentive under the Research Council of Norway, and was started in 2017 as one of eight FME centres. FME centres have eight years duration, and are funded by the Research Council, user partners from trade and industry, the public administration and society at large. The Norwegian hydropower sector mobilised together with research communities to form HydroCen, as there was a strong consensus that the hydro industry had complex unsolved challenges ahead. The centre is headed up by NTNU, the Norwegian University for Science and Technology, with SINTEF Energy and Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) as main research partners.
To solve the challenges from enhanced system requirements, the research within HydroCen will focus on strengthening the capabilities of the hydropower system, including power, energy storage, availability and ramping rates. With new strategies worldwide for energy security and reliability, hydropower is in a unique position to be a flexibility provider.
To give the future hydropower system the flexibility and response required to serve the demand from market, grid, bilateral power cables, new industry and new materials advances in turbine and generator design, tunnel systems and penstocks must be utilised.
The research areas in HydroCen include:
- Hydropower structures
- Turbine and generators
- Market and services
- Environmental design
Hydropower structures
The main objective is to develop new technologies for hydropower structures and dam safety. Activities include all building elements in a power plant, such as the dam, intake, tunnel system, power station, hydropower system and outlets from the waterways. Laboratory tests make up a large part of the activities, for example for the research on safety measures for rockfill dams under extreme loading condition, sliding resistance of concrete dams on rock foundation, and dam structural health monitoring.
The research on improved safety for rockfill dams shows that risk of dam breach can be drastically reduced in overtopping situations. By improving the placement of the rocks protecting the downstream slope of rockfill dams against erosion and securing the “dam toe” at the foundation, the risk of damages can be reduced – and in extreme cases it can prevent or delay collapse.
Another result is found from research on hydropower tunnels. New methodology for estimating rock stress in hydropower tunnels can save large sums in the hydropower industry. In HydroCen, the researchers have developed a new and cost-effective test method for measuring rock stress, called the Rapid Step-Rate Test (RSRT). It enables more frequent and more cost-effective measurements, which in turn can make the tunnels safer.
Turbine and generators
Developing new technologies to strengthen the capabilities of the hydropower system and enhancing the operational and system flexibility is the objective of research into turbines and generators.
A paradigm shift in design and operation of the power plants is possible by introducing power electronic converters. Reversible pump-turbines will operate smoothly, ramping rates will be faster, efficiency will be higher, and the operating range of Francis turbines will be wider when introducing variable speed turbines and generators.
Interest from the hydropower sector for more optimised operation and maintenance of rotating machinery, resulted in ground-breaking research on how faults in generators can be discovered by monitoring the magnetic field. A new method developed in HydroCen uses small signals and machine learning to discover faults before the damage occurs. Thus, both power industry and society can avoid major damages and costs.
Market and services
The main objective here is to prepare stakeholders for future value creation using hydropower’s unique capabilities to provide energy storage, system services, reliability of supply, environmentally friendly operation, and the ability to adapt to and mitigate consequences of climate change. Increasing value creation from hydropower depends on the ability to exploit opportunities in the power markets through delivery of services such as flexibility, stability and security.
The future value of hydropower production and correct investments are very much dependent on the future market prices of the different services that hydropower can provide. Information about prices, market designs and price structures for the future power market are therefore important input information.
Environmental design
The main objective of environmental design is to develop knowledge and innovative technology to mitigate environmental impacts from hydropower operations.
Water resources are important for several socio-economic benefits in addition to production of climate-neutral energy. This comprises flood protection and control, security of supply and balancing services. In addition, essential ecosystem services such as irrigation, drinking water, biodiversity and recreation are stakeholders in water management- and usage.
In addition to all the research projects focusing on user cases in Norway, HydroCen researchers have also studied how three of Europe’s largest hydropower nations, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden, work to modernise and improve the environmental conditions in rivers with existing hydropower plants. The project is called “Environmental Measures in European Hydropower Nations”, and the researchers have looked into how the governments of these three countries have faced the conflicts between contradictory national strategies, guidelines and legislation.
Finding an acceptable balance between the need for energy and environmental goals is more difficult than one would think. Hydropower contributes important renewable and environmentally friendly energy, at the cost of the ecosystems in the rivers. These conflicts make it difficult to find a good balance when licences are up for revision, and it is necessary to have clear guidelines, boundaries and definitions. The research show that all countries still face challenges in this area, and that some central challenges need to be solved, like how to value hydropower against environmental values in the rivers in the best possible way, and how hydropower production as a whole affects the environment.
Cooperation
The research work is carried out in work packages, organised as projects with researchers, PhD-students, Master students and academic staff. Many projects have a high degree of laboratory work with technical tests, followed by analysis, documentation and publication. The production of publications in HydroCen is high, and all involved are encouraged to communicate and share research results in available channels. The challenges in hydropower are rarely limited to Norway, and the international cooperation is very important for all our researchers. There are strong relations to researchers in Europe, Asia, Tasmania, and the Americas.
Our partners are essential to make sure that the research is focused on current and future challenges in the hydropower sector. In Norway there is a long history of close cooperation between the industry and the research community, and the user partners contribute with user cases, data, and possibilities for real life technical tests in their plants and waterways.
Usefulness
HydroCen measures its success not only in publications and innovations, but also in how much of the research has been put to use in the hydropower sector. To achieve success on usefulness, the partners play a key role. Therefore, HydroCen puts a great deal of effort into sharing and communicating research results in an understandable way, and have gathered all results in the HydroCen Knowledge Hub “Kunnskapsbanken”: https://hydrocen.nina.no/english/
All examples mentioned above are found at the Knowledge Hub, with details and contact details for the involved researchers.
Liv Randi Hultgreen is the Executive Director of FME HydroCen and can be contacted at: liv.hultgreen@ntnu.no
