Dr Weiwei Chen launches new project 'D-HYDROFLEX'

The European Commission-funded project 'D-HYDROFLEX' which stands for Digital solutions for improving the sustainability performance and FLEXibility potential of HYDROpower was launched on 01 September 2023 to tackle the challenges posed by the European Green Deal and the Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030 for Europe.

University College London, represented by Dr Weiwei Chen, from The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, is one of the 18 partners involved in this project. Dr Weiwei Chen's research group will create digital models for the dam and design a digital twin platform to support applications for improving sustainability.

The Horizon Europe D-HYDROFLEX project held its kick-off meeting in Brussels at the end of September 2023, aiming at advancing excellence in research on digital technology for hydropower, paving the way towards more efficient, more sustainable, and more competitive hydropower plants in modern power markets.

The consortium brings together five power plant operators/energy producers (EDF, TEE, PPC, INTEX, TAGSA), six European research institutes and universities (CARTIF, PWR, UCL, UOC, UoA, ENERGYLAB) and seven technology providers (UBI, NOVA, UBE, MINDS, FASADA, IDEA, CINT). D-HYDROFLEX is a 36-month project and will carry out five demonstration campaigns in seven hydropower plants.

Consequently, D-HYDROFLEX will develop a toolkit for digitally ‘renovating’ the existing hydroelectric power plants based on sensors, digital twins, AI algorithms, hybridization modelling (power-to-hydrogen), cloud-edge computing and image processing.

The core pillars of the project are:

1. Digitalization: Digital twins for hydro dams and machinery, weather and flow forecasts, and cyber resilience tools
2. Flexibility: Coordination with hydrogen, storage and VPP operation
3. Sustainability: Biodiversity and environmental indicators monitoring

Validation will take place in seven hydro plants operated by EDF (France), Tauron Ekoenergia (Poland), PPC (Greece), TASGA (Spain) and INTEX (Romania), covering different geographical areas of Europe.

Dr Weiwei Chen said: “The D-HYDROFLEX project aims to advance excellence in research on digital technology for hydropower paving the way towards more efficient, more sustainable, and more competitive hydropower plants in modern power markets. This project has set high-standard objectives to be implemented during the project's lifetime and will have a significant impact towards the decarbonisation of the energy system. The primary research focus in my research group will be the development of a digital twin for the dam and the architecture of its digital platform, supporting a range of applications in hydropower."