Expanding the Frontiers of Hydropower Innovation
Hydropower assets are being asked to respond faster, operate across wider ranges and provide greater support to increasingly renewable power systems. Meeting these expectations requires reliable data, advanced testing and robust modelling to understand how new designs, refurbished equipment and control strategies will behave under demanding operating conditions.
SuperGrid Institute’s new white paper Expanding the Frontiers of Hydropower Innovation presents a selection of experimental and numerical approaches developed to reduce uncertainty and support evidence-based decisions throughout the lifecycle of hydropower assets.
Discover our Whitepaper on Hydropower Innovation
Supporting informed hydropower decisions
Designed for turbine manufacturers, innovation leaders and asset managers, the white paper shows how experimental testing, numerical modelling and system-level analysis can help:
- Reduce technical and investment uncertainty
- Validate performance and control strategies before field implementation
- Identify and safely extend operating limits
- Assess refurbishment and hybridisation opportunities
- Improve operational flexibility and grid-support capabilities
Whether you are developing a new turbine, preparing a refurbishment programme or assessing the flexibility potential of an existing asset, this white paper provides practical insights into the methods available to support your technical and strategic decisions.
Download our Whitepaper on Hydropower Innovation
From turbine validation to flexibility assessment
Drawing on industrial applications and R&D projects, the whitepaper explores several pathways for improving the performance, flexibility and reliability of hydropower plants:
- Turbine design validation through IEC 60193-compliant model testing
- Extension of operating ranges using air injection
- Investigation of extreme hydraulic transients with HydroPHIL
- Hardware-in-the-Loop validation of control strategies
- Bio-inspired riblet surfaces for future efficiency improvements
- Hybrid hydro-storage solutions combining hydropower and Battery Energy Storage Systems
- Mini-PSP concepts using existing hydraulic infrastructure
The document also presents case studies developed with industrial partners, including turbine model testing for GLOBAL Hydro, water column separation investigations with ANDRITZ, validation of hybrid control strategies within the LOLABAT project and the assessment of hybrid pumped-storage and battery solutions.
Complete the form to download the whitepaper
and explore new pathways for hydropower innovation.
