| Contents regulars Cover Story


Honen'ike Pond Dam in the Sanuki Mountain range, Japan. The structure dates from 1930. Image: Sean Pavone/ Shutterstock.com


5 World News


Hydro industry calls on EU to back pumped storage; Kidston becomes first pumped storage scheme


registered in NEM in nearly 40 years features 10 12 16 20 10 Spotlight


Andrew Hey and Andie McConnell of Withers & Rogers explain why tidal energy is key to realising the UK’s renewable power potential


Classified


40 42


Contacts


24


Q&A 12


AI advances fish monitoring


Innovasea is leading the Species Aware project to integrate automated fish species identification into hydropower monitoring


35


Digital twins 16


Africa 20


A new wave Despite its potential, developing hydropower across the African region can still be quite challenging. However, as IWP&DC reports here, a new wave of projects is gradually gaining momentum


Digital twins rising New deployments in Norway, the US and China showcase how virtual replicas of dams, turbines and water infrastructure are helping operators boost efficiency, manage risk and prepare for climate-driven surprises


18 36


Doubling Up The innovative development of digital twins within the hydro industry is not only transforming engineering practice and enhancing operational efficiency and safety, it’s also introducing new contractual, regulatory and risk-allocation issues


Dam safety 24


Tunnelling 34


Precision blasting for tunnels


Blasting techniques used to excavate a diversion tunnel at the Pakal Dam site in India have addressed the challenges posed by complex geological conditions in large-scale tunnelling projects


35


Designing earthquake- resilient temporary dam works


.Chongjiang DU examines current practice, highlights critical design gaps, and proposes risk-based criteria and thresholds to ensure safer cofferdams and temporary diversion structures during dam construction


30


Data and dam safety Two recent studies highlight complementary approaches to strengthening dam safety and hydropower operations through data, regulation, and institutional practice


TBM breakthrough at Pingjiang


A variable diameter inclined shaft tunnel boring machine has completed a landmark breakthrough on China’s Pingjiang pumped storage hydropower project,


showcasing new engineering solutions for steep, large- diameter underground excavation


Climate resilience 36


Resolving to be resilient Learning from case studies can help to increase the climate resilience of hydro projects


Next issue AI & predictive analysis; pumped storage updates across the globe; operation and maintenance; cybersecurity risk management; barriers and booms @waterpowermag


©Business Trade Media International ISSN 0306-400X


www.waterpowermagazine.com | January 2026 | 3


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