Revolutionary Refurbishment for an Efficient and Eco-Friendly Hydropower
Historically, hydroelectric turbines have been designed to operate at nominal load (BEP).
Today, with the massive integration of intermittent renewable energies, they are increasingly operating under partial or transient conditions. These conditions generate :
- Increased fatigue and reduced service life
- Inter-vane vortices in the deep partial load regime
- High pressure pulsations in part-load operation
Against this backdrop, the European RevHydro aims to revolutionise the renovation of existing power plants.
The RevHydro project (Horizon Europe - HORIZON-RIA, 48 months Proposal-SEP-211000742) aims to design and validate innovative flow control devices to improve the efficiency, flexibility and sustainability of existing hydroelectric power plants, with minimal impact on infrastructure.
The Hydro Alps Lab is working closely with the University of Lulea and GE Vernova to develop a system called Draft Tube Flow Control (DFC), which reduces the amplitude of pressure pulsations at partial load.
Our approach combines :
- High-fidelity CFD/FEA modelling
- Fatigue models
- Optimisation using machine learning
