Two hours east of Lisbon, the Alqueva Dam impounds the Guadiana, a mighty river running down the southern stretch of the Portugal-Spain border. This rugged landscape, which looks from above like a crumpled sheet of paper, was the birthplace of the knights-errant, soldiers and explorers of the Spanish and Portuguese empires. Today, the Age of Discovery lives on at Alqueva — only this time, the spoils are not silver or stories, but electrical power and efficiency.
The parish of Alqueva is home to a 518.4-megawatt (MW) hydropower plant, a key player in Portugal’s hydro sector that generates just about one-third of the southern European country’s electricity. But today the Alqueva plant is harnessing more than energy. It also collects vast amounts of data from the turbines, generators and other equipment inside to get smarter about its business.
“Alqueva’s hydro plant, like all industrial assets and processes, generates an enormous amount of data,” says GE Renewable Energy Chief Technology Officer Danielle Merfeld, who spoke earlier this month in the shadows of the Grande Arche, a giant marble-clad cube that overlooks the business district of La Défense in Paris.“You can transform that data into value by getting the customer’s plant to do more.”
Merfeld was fresh from the stage at the World Hydropower Congress, where she had explained to conference delegates how digitalization is squeezing massive efficiency wins out of some of the world’s biggest power plants. She explained how these wins can often surprise power plant operators and lead them to completely reappraise their assets.
Alqueva, which is part of a roughly 9.5-gigawatt (GW) hydropower fleet operated by Energias de Portugal (EDP), is one of the plants included in the vast digitalization plan launched last year by the utility to optimize the fleet’s tremendous horsepower. Engineers have installed sensors throughout the plant to gather and analyze millions of data points on the velocity and turbulence of the water that passes through the runner blades on its four turbines. Alqueva uses Francis turbines, which work on the same principle as the waterwheel: As the water gushes out of the dam through a tunnel, the downward impact on the blades causes the turbine shaft to rotate, producing torque and generating electricity. “Combine all that data with an artificial intelligence brain that asks, ‘What happens if?’ — and you will get some surprising results,” says Merfeld.
The Alqueva Dam (top) uses Francis turbines (above). Images Credit: GE Renewable Energy.
For example, the AI brain — part of GE’s Asset Performance Management (APM) software — can analyze a data set that tracks the turbine’s total power generation relative to water velocity and then compare the results with what it already knows about the design of the runner blades. The operator might discover that it’s possible to increase the speed of the water hitting the runner blades, maximizing electricity production, and still be within the operating envelope of the machine.
Such techniques could push Alqueva’s power generation beyond 518.4 MW, which is the plant’s nameplate capacity, explains Merfeld: “You are producing more power than the plant is rated for — without changing the design of the turbines at all.”
Or the APM software could determine from the mountains of data that the turbulent flow of the water is not as high as originally assumed. A smoother flow is good news, because turbulence weathers and ages the blades. It means that EDP can carry out expensive and disruptive maintenance less frequently than before.
Being able to avoid downtime and generate extra gigawatt-hours is critical for any plant operator selling power on the wholesale electricity market. “For us, monitoring and digitalization is all about boosting availability,” Nuno Martins, the head of remote monitoring for EDP’s power generation assets across the Iberian Peninsula, told conference delegates in Paris. “It is truly a big transformation for us.”
GE’s Asset Performance Management (APM) software can track a turbine’s total power generation relative to water velocity and then compare the results with what it already knows about the design of the runner blades. “Imagine having a car with a speedometer that only goes to 100 km/h,” says Merfeld. “Digitalization might tell you that car is actually capable of 120 km/h.” GIF credit: GE Reports.
It’s still early days for Alqueva, but the monitoring and digitalization of a hydropower plant in Pont Baldy in southeastern France has proven productive. There, the APM software has collected and analyzed almost 2 terabytes of raw data per month since 2015, squeezing up to 1% of extra availability from the power plant by preventing unnecessary repairs and catching faulty components early.
GE is giving Alqueva another weapon in its arsenal: a digital twin. Using several data sources, including site measurements and scaled model tests, GE Renewable Energy’s engineers have built a computer-generated replica of the plant’s runner blades. Virtual representations like this one — called digital twins — don’t just allow EDP to know its power plant inside out, understand its weaknesses and optimize its performance. They also enable the company to get the most out of Alqueva by take different performance scenarios and business models for a spin pretty much risk-free online first.
“Imagine having a car with a speedometer that only goes to 100 km/h,” says Merfeld. “Digitalization might tell you that car is actually capable of 120 km/h. Digitalization and digital twins allowed us to define operating conditions well beyond what existed before. This allows plant operators to harness the full potential of their systems.”
The good news is that approximately 30% of the world’s current hydro fleet is over 40 years old, especially in mature regions like Europe and North America. As these hydropower assets go through retrofits and modernization, they will be able to take advantage of digital upgrades. In a way, bringing aging dams to modern standards is the opening that allows the hydropower industry to get its digital makeover.
At Alqueva, the good times are already flowing.