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- Asset Management
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- Climate Change
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- Governor
- Hydraulic Forecasting
- Hydraulic Optimization
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- Conventional Hydro
Data-Driven Approach for Hydropower Plant Controller Prototyping using Remote Hardware-in-the-Loop (DR-HIL)
Lead Companies
NREL
Lead Researcher (s)
- Mayank Panwar, Mayank.panwar@nrel.gov
Real-time prototyping of hydropower plant controls is important for reducing the cost and the risk of field deployment. In this project, we propose to 1) collect design and operational data from actual hydro plants and 2) use a physics-informed machine learning approach for real-time emulation of hydropower plants, including the hydro turbine and hydrodynamics. The data-driven models will be interfaced with digital real-time simulation at NREL’s Flatirons campus for hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing of the governor hardware device or controller-HIL (CHIL). The proposed approach will also establish the connectivity-based remote CHIL testing capability using real-time data streams from an actual hydro plant. This integrated data-driven hydro-plant emulation with CHIL will be used to prototype hydro-governor controls and, in the future, provide an opportunity to test hydropower integrated with various technologies (e.g., conventional and renewable generation, energy conversion, etc.) as HIL.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Powerhouse Equipment
Research Sub-Category
Governor
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Conventional Hydro
Design and Manufacturing Study of Hydroelectric Turbines Using Recycled and Natural Fiber Composites
Lead Companies
Oregon State University
Lead Researcher (s)
- Marc Whitehead
The objective of this project is to demonstrate the feasibility fiber-reinforced turbine components through a design and manufacturing study. The motivation for using composites is to reduce weight and simplify manufacturing especially at high production volumes. In addition, natural fiber composites are implemented for applicable components to reduce environmental impact. Existing steel designs provided by major manufacturers are used as models. These are re-designed using composite materials, maintaining original geometry as much as possible. The components selected for composite design are the turbine penstock, scroll case, guide vanes, runner (impeller) and draft tube. In addition, the design of a composite fish ladder is presented to show the application of composites to other elements of hydroelectric power. Once the structural and mechanical design was complete, material and manufacturing costs were analyzed. The choice of materials was based upon loading requirements, the runner required a high strength random reinforcement carbon fiber sheet molding compound (SMC) while a glass fabric and rovings provided adequate strength for the guide vanes, scroll case, penstock and outer walls of the fish ladder while minimizing the cost. A flax fabric was selected for the design of the draft tube additionally using a bio-based PLA resin. The inner sections of the fish ladder use a flax fabric and polypropylene pultrusion. Manufacturing methods for each were selected based on geometry and cost. The complex shape of the runner was most easily formed using compression molding, which also reduced the cost as compared to hand lay up. A comparison between hand lay up and vacuum infusion was completed for the guide vanes and scroll case. Hand lay up was chosen for the draft tube as it is the most commercially proven method for the manufacture of components using natural fibers. Filament winding, the method used for the penstock would be the ideal method of manufacture but it has yet to be completed in a commercial setting with natural fibers. Results show the cost of most parts is dominated by tooling (molds) for the components as the research focused on a small run of ten parts, assumed to be for research and testing purposes. However, the contribution of tooling can be cut in half if the run size is doubled. The design and manufacturing analysis does support the use of composite materials in hydroelectric turbines and the costs associated with their manufacture are within reasonable parameters for industry.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Powerhouse Equipment
Research Sub-Category
Turbine
Status
complete
Completion Date
2013
- Conventional Hydro
Development and Experimental Hardware Validation of Novel Variable Speed Hydropower Control Schemes for Emerging Applications and Water Resource Paradigms
Lead Companies
Oregon State University
Lead Researcher (s)
- Michael Starrett
Recent opportunities for new hydropower generation in the United States have often been in non-powered dams and run-of-river type flows occurring in low-impact natural areas and unregulated conduits. At the same time, a changing water resource paradigm is challenging some existing generation in drought stricken areas where supply reservoirs behind many medium and high head units are at historically low levels. The result is a developing market space which is potentially best captured by machines capable of variable speed operation. Variable speed units have a wider range of operating conditions compared to their synchronous counterparts and have already proven their resilience through a 20+ year history in pumped hydro applications. This work develops a control scheme for variable speed hydropower units operating to deliver a set-point power through flow controlling gates. This control scheme increases both the hydrologic operating range of a unit as well as the speed of response to grid contingencies under droop and automatic generator control. Results from simulation are confirmed on hardware.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Powerhouse Equipment
Research Sub-Category
Controls
Status
complete
Completion Date
2016
- Conventional Hydro
Development of a Numerical Tool to Predict Hydrodynamics, Temperature and TDG in Hydropower Flows
Lead Companies
University of Iowa
Lead Researcher (s)
- Yushi Wang
Hydropower is the most important renewable energy source on the planet. Though it provides abundant benefits to society, it also has environmental and ecological consequences. Dam construction significantly alters natural flow conditions. Fish numbers decline and other aquatic life may be adversely affected, especially during migration and reproduction cycles, due to degradation of their natural habitat. High summer water temperatures in hydropower reservoirs and elevated total dissolved gas (TDG) concentrations in downstream tailrace regions can increase mortality rates of fish passing through the dam. This study proposes to develop a numerical model to improve the prediction of hydrodynamics and water-quality parameters in hydropower flows. The main focus is to simulate temperature dynamics and TDG distribution in the McNary Dam forebay and tailrace. Existing numerical temperature and TDG models, developed by Politano et al. (2008, 2009c), were improved and implemented into the open-source CFD code OpenFOAM. These newly developed models can be used to evaluate the efficiency of operational changes or structural modifications to reduce the negative environmental impacts of hydropower facilities. The forebay temperature model was based on the incompressible ReynoldsAveraged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with the Boussinesq approximation. Turbulence was modeled with an improved realizable k model taking into account wind turbulence generation at the free surface. A thermal model incorporating solar radiation and convective heat transfer at the free surface was employed. The model was validated against field data collected on August 18th, 2004 at McNary Dam. Observed vertical and lateral temperature distributions and dynamics in the forebay were captured by the model. The incorporation of the atmospheric heat flux, solar radiation, and windinduced turbulence improved the temperature predictions near the free surface. The multi-phase TDG model utilized the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method combined with a Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) approach to calculate hydrodynamics. A one-way coupling approach was used to incorporate a TDG model, which includes the transport and dissolution of bubbles entrained in the spillway and takes into account bubble size change caused by dissolution and compression. The capability of the present model to predict spillway flow regimes was evaluated against observations in a reduced scale laboratory model. Simulation results demonstrated that flow regimes downstream of a spillway can be adequately reproduced by the numerical model. The capability of the model to quantify dissolved gas exchanges and TDG distribution was evaluated using a tailrace sectional model. The model captured TDG production and observed longitudinal TDG reduction under different flow regimes. Disparities between predicted and measured average TDG values fell within 4%. The model developed in this study is an effective predictive numerical tool to identify flow regimes and quantify TDG production under various flow conditions in near dam regions when lateral flows are not important.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Powerhouse Equipment
Research Sub-Category
Turbine
Status
complete
Completion Date
2013
- Conventional Hydro
Development of Hydro Plant Bushings and Seals Best Practices
Lead Companies
CEATI International
Lead Researcher (s)
- 03/107
The report will present an in-depth analysis of the current best practices and case studies of non-lubricated bushings and seals in use by the hydro industry.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Powerhouse Equipment
Research Sub-Category
Turbine
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
Expected 2022
- Conventional Hydro
Electrical Overhaul Guide for Hydroelectric Turbine Generators
Lead Companies
CEATI International
Lead Researcher (s)
- #0385
to provide an action agenda for upcoming engineers, and the operations and maintenance personnel at all stages of condition based analysis and refurbishment.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Powerhouse Equipment
Research Sub-Category
Status
complete
Completion Date
2020
- Conventional Hydro
Emulating Hydropower in a Controlled Real-world Environment at ARIES for Rapid Prototyping of Next-generation Hydro-controls [HydroWIRES]
Lead Companies
NREL
Lead Researcher (s)
- Mayank Panwar, Mayank.panwar@nrel.gov
This project aims to solve the industry problem of risky, expensive, and time-consuming field validation of new hydropower governor controls by developing a controlled lab environment for evaluation. In this environment, researchers will be able to easily plug in real controller hardware to test under various grid conditions. This effort will utilize a variety of ARIES tools, including digital real-time simulation, actual hardware grid controllers, digital governors, variable speed hydro-generator, and more.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Powerhouse Equipment
Research Sub-Category
Governor
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Conventional Hydro
Establishing a Standard Methodology to Evaluate Start/stop and Cycling Costs and Impacts
Lead Companies
CEATI International
Lead Researcher (s)
- 03/104
The goal of this project is to develop a standardized methodology to identify equipment degradation and cost impacts of start/stops and cycling. The methodology is intended to be easy to use and will produce inputs and outputs are similar and comparable across hydro plants and utilities so that members can record, illustrate, and evaluate the phenomenon of accelerated start/stop and cycling costs
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Powerhouse Equipment
Research Sub-Category
Turbine
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
Expected 2020
- Conventional Hydro
Experimentation of Synchronous and Variable Speed Small Scale Hydropower Systems
Lead Companies
Oregon State University
Lead Researcher (s)
- Elliott Jackson
Hydropower is the one of the oldest renewable energy technologies and is wrongly thought of today as having little room to grow. The opportunity for new hydropower capacity is immense through both technology advancement and run-ofriver new stream reach projects. Despite the age of hydropower, a divide in opinion is forming regarding how we should proceed with generating power from smaller undisturbed rivers and canals. Hydropower generation techniques have been primarily fixed speed since its inception in the late 19th century, but it seems as though variable speed generation could hold the key to more efficiently utilizing new stream reach resources. This research aims to provide a cost benefit analysis of fixed speed vs. variable speed hydropower generation topologies, and distinguish the performance advantages that variable speed generation could hold in other aspects of hydropower. Simulation results are validated with hardware.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Powerhouse Equipment
Research Sub-Category
Turbine
Status
complete
Completion Date
2017
- Conventional Hydro
Feature Selection for Monitoring Erosive Cavitation on a Hydroturbine
Lead Companies
Colorado School of Mines
Lead Researcher (s)
- Seth Gregg
This paper presents a method for comparing and evaluating cavitation detection features - the first step towards estimating remaining useful life (RUL) of hydroturbine runners that are impacted by erosive cavitation. The method can be used to quickly compare features created from cavitation survey data collected on any type of hydroturbine, sensor type, sensor location, and cavitation sensitivity parameter (CSP). Although manual evaluation and knowledge of hydroturbine cavitation is still required for our feature selection method, the use of principal component analysis greatly reduces the number of plots that require evaluation. We present a case study based on a cavitation survey data collected on a Francis hydroturbine located at a hydroelectric plant and demonstrate the selection of the most advantageous sensor type, sensor location, and CSP to use on this hydroturbine for long-term monitoring of erosive cavitation. Our method provides hydroturbine operators and researchers with a clear and effective means to determine preferred sensors, sensor placements, and CSPs while also laying the groundwork for determining RUL in the future.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Powerhouse Equipment
Research Sub-Category
Turbine
Status
complete
Completion Date
2018
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Have questions about WaRP?
Contact Marla Barnes at: marla@hydro.org