| Power plant products Anchor mooring for hybrid systems


Pairing floating solar with hydropower potentially unlocks hundreds of GW opportunities globally. However, one of the main challenges for floating solar installations at sites with large water height variation is how to maintain consistent position and tension across shifting depths in water. Water levels rise and fall, sometimes dramatically, leaving conventional mooring systems either too taut or too slack. The result is reduced efficiency, increased maintenance needs, and operational uncertainty.


Tension Buoy by Fred Olsen is designed to cope with water-level variations, to provide safe, reliable, and efficient anchor mooring. By integrating a ‘smart’, automatic winch, the buoy continuously adjusts the mooring line length in


response to changing water levels. At its core is an integrated winch located on top of the structure, and designed to deliver dynamic tension control. As water levels change, this winch automatically adjusts the mooring chain length, consistently maintaining the optimal tension in the mooring line. It can be deployed temporarily for precise tensioning during installation, or installed permanently. Hydro dams are dynamic, with levels rising and falling by many metres in short time intervals. Where fixed mooring systems have lines either too short or too long when water level changes, the Tension Buoy adapts the lines to ideal lengths and tension without manual handling. Tension Buoy is believed to represent


a bold step in unlocking the latent potential of reservoirs behind hydropower dams. Its self- adjusting anchoring system ensures floating solar and hybrid installations remain secure in all conditions, transforming challenging water bodies into productive assets.


Tree removal by drones and laser power


Recently, the operation and maintenance personnel of State Grid Xuzhou Power Supply Company conducted a comprehensive clearance operation targeting super-tall trees beneath the number 1–3 and 4–5 conductors of the 220 kV Qingni 2W78 line. The work was based on risk level results from the ‘Tree Obstacle Digital Archive’ it created.


Prior to the operation, the personnel accurately identified the locations of trees under the power lines using a power transmission visualisation system and deployed drones to perform rapid on-site verification. During the operation, the maintenance team carried out standardised tree-felling procedures and utilised a laser ‘foreign object removal device’ to precisely trim overgrown branches, thereby enhancing


both operational safety and efficiency. In the face of a large number of tree-related hazards, the traditional ‘manual’ inspection method is not only inefficient but also costly. To address this challenge, XPSC has actively adopted technological innovations by applying unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) laser point cloud scanning technology to establish a new model for managing tree-line hazards. For key sections with dense tree obstacles, drones equipped with laser pan-tilt units are used to collect detailed tree data, enabling the construction of precise 3D models and the calculation of accurate clearance distances between trees and power lines.


This method enables the accurate capture of key data such as tree co-ordinates, quantity,


New protective coating for corrosion protection


UK-based company Deep Water Blue, a prominent provider of water treatment solutions, has announced the availability and tested benefits of ‘Odacon’ film-forming chemistry for Waste-to-Energy facilities, gas-fired power stations, and biomass plants across the UK and Ireland. This technology, licensed by Reicon, is said to offer high performance corrosion protection and operational efficiency improvements for high-pressure steam systems operating under the demanding conditions typical of modern power generation facilities. Where power stations have moved away from using legacy oxygen scavengers like hydrazine, the shift has left steam systems more exposed to oxygen-related corrosion. This is especially prevalent as modern plants frequently shut down, restart, and adjust output to manage grid demand. These flexible operations are


now common, but create new vulnerabilities in turbine, condenser, and steam cycle components.


Odacon is said to offer a new solution for these evolving industry needs by replacing traditional hazardous chemicals with an advanced film-forming treatment that, in one step, coats the entire water-steam system from the boiler through to turbines and condensers, helping power stations protect their assets even while demand is fluctuating.


By adding a molecular coating to system surfaces, Odacon shields against both oxygen corrosion and flow-assisted corrosion, key threats during frequent load changes and stop- start cycles. The object is to provide enhanced corrosion protection to maintain reliable operation and extend the life of their equipment. Recent projects include an 800 MW combined


cycle gas turbine power plant of Statkraft Germany, where it delivered a 50 % reduction in re-commissioning time and a 70 % reduction in iron concentration in intermediate pressure sections during restart. The treatment also eliminated the need for nitrogen blanketing and complex drying procedures, significantly simplifying operational requirements while providing robust corrosion protection. Low dosage requirements and efficiency gains are claimed major advantages, as the product cleans legacy deposits and encourages the transformation of red haematite into a protective magnetite layer on heat transfer surfaces.


www.modernpowersystems.com | October 2025 | 41


and height, forming a comprehensive ‘Digital Archive of Tree Obstacles.’ The system also automatically classifies risk levels into three categories—general, serious, and urgent— based on predefined safety thresholds, thereby providing data-driven support for the scientific planning and efficient execution of tree obstacle management strategies.


Inspection efficiency has improved by 50% compared to traditional methods, while the measurement error for tree-to-line distances has been reduced to the centimetre level. To date, the company has collected data from 283 suspected tree-obstructed sections using this technology and identified 33 serious tree-line hazards, all of which have been fully addressed through a closed-loop rectification process.


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