Europe |
Working to resolve hydro’s challenges
Liv Randi Hultgreen, the Executive Director of FME HydroCen in Norway, gives an insight into the important research being undertaken at the centre
HYDROCEN IS A RESEARCH centre focusing on hydropower technology in combination with environmental conditions and market aspects. Its main objective is to enable the hydropower sector to meet complex challenges and exploit new opportunities through innovative technological solutions. HydroCen is a Centre for Environment-friendly
Above: HydroCen is working to develop new techniques for hydropower and dam safety
Energy Research (FME), an incentive under the Research Council of Norway, and was started in 2017 as one of eight FME centres. FME centres have eight years duration, and are funded by the Research Council, user partners from trade and industry, the public administration and society at large. The Norwegian hydropower sector mobilised together with research communities to form HydroCen, as there was a strong consensus that the hydro industry had complex unsolved challenges ahead. The centre is headed up by NTNU, the Norwegian University for Science and Technology, with SINTEF Energy and Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) as main research partners. To solve the challenges from enhanced system
requirements, the research within HydroCen will focus on strengthening the capabilities of the hydropower system, including power, energy storage, availability and ramping rates. With new strategies worldwide for energy security and reliability, hydropower is in a unique position to be a flexibility provider. To give the future hydropower system the flexibility
and response required to serve the demand from market, grid, bilateral power cables, new industry and new materials advances in turbine and generator design, tunnel systems and penstocks must be utilised.
The research areas in HydroCen include: Hydropower structures. Turbine and generators. Market and services. Environmental design.
Hydropower structures The main objective is to develop new technologies
for hydropower structures and dam safety. Activities include all building elements in a power plant, such as the dam, intake, tunnel system, power station, hydropower system and outlets from the waterways. Laboratory tests make up a large part of the activities, for example for the research on safety measures for rockfill dams under extreme loading condition, sliding resistance of concrete dams on rock foundation, and dam structural health monitoring. The research on improved safety for rockfill dams shows that risk of dam breach can be drastically reduced in overtopping situations. By improving the placement of the rocks protecting the downstream slope of rockfill dams against erosion and securing the “dam toe” at the foundation, the risk of damages can be reduced - and in extreme cases it can prevent or delay collapse. Another result is found from research on hydropower tunnels. New methodology for estimating rock stress in hydropower tunnels can save large sums in the hydropower industry. In HydroCen, the researchers have developed a new and cost-effective test method for measuring rock stress, called the Rapid Step-Rate Test (RSRT). It enables more frequent and more cost-effective measurements, which in turn can make the tunnels safer.
Right: Research has also been carried out into hydropower tunnels. Photo by Erlend Andreassen
20 | October 2024 |
www.waterpowermagazine.com
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