GE Research awarded hydropower plant flexibility project

Scotland Hydro
(photo courtesy FirstLight Power)

GE Research, the technology development arm for General Electric Company, has been awarded a 30-month, $4.3 million project through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office to improve the operating capacity and flexibility of hydropower assets.

A team of engineers from GE Research will work with GE Renewable Energy’s Hydro business, as well as Eagle Creek Renewable and FirstLight Power, to outfit three plants with minimal sensors and other tools to enhance the operational flexibility by more effectively ramping electricity generation up or down with their hydro assets.

The approach will allow hydro plant operators to unlock previously untapped flexibility to help address the transition to a more renewables-intensive grid, said Arvind Tiwari, advanced technology platform leader in the electrical systems group at GE Research and principal investigator on the project.

“Hydro power today already is the most flexible and dispatchable renewable resource, but the growth of other variable renewables, such as wind and solar, will require it to become even more flexible and keep the grid in balance, especially as other traditional forms of base load generation come offline or retire,” he said. “We believe this can be accomplished at minimal cost and disruption by outfitting hydro plants with sensors and other tools that allow hydro units to expand their capabilities.”

A key objective of the demonstration is to show the increased flexibility and operating capacity of hydro plants with existing components, without compromising the life of plant equipment, Tiwari said. Certain hydro plants were designed for stable, constant operations with limited flexibility. The GE Research team believes that with more data and great visibility of plant behavior, they can introduce more variability in operations, such as fast ramp ups of hydro units, without compromising the life of their components.

“We are very excited to work with our institutional partners to help find new ways to enhance hydropower’s already critical contributions to the fight against climate change,” said Justin Trudell, FirstLight’s chief operating officer. “Hydro’s flexibility is vital to our efforts to create a cleaner, more sustainable energy future, ensuring that the growing renewable sector is both reliable and resilient.”

Eagle Creek’s Senior Advisor Jose Zayas said, “As we continue to decarbonize our electricity system, hydropower can provide significant system benefits to accelerate the transition to a cleaner grid. This research project is a critical step in identifying novel and cost-effective ways to unlocking hydropower’s true potential.”

FirstLight and Eagle Creek Renewable Energy each have significant hydro footprints in the U.S. FirstLight’s portfolio includes nearly 1,400 MW of pumped-hydro storage, hydroelectric generation, battery storage and solar generation in the New England region. Eagle Creek Renewable Energy owns and operates 86 hydroelectric facilities across the U.S.

As part of the $4.3 million project ($3 million from DOE and $1.3 million in cost share from GE and its project partners), Tiwari said the GE team will look at a variety of operating scenarios, including the combination of batteries with hydropower and operational improvements for pumped storage hydropower.

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