Hydro-Clone: Innovative Real-Time Simulation Monitoring System for Hydropower Plant Transient Survey

This article first of all presents an innovative application of Real-Time Simulation Monitoring (RTSM), defined hereafter as “hydro-cloning”, developed by Power Vision Engineering. Second, a successful implementation of hydro-cloning is presented for the 170 MW La Bâtiaz hydroelectric power plant, HPP, owned and operated by Electricité d’Emosson SA, in the Canton of Wallis, Switzerland. The “Hydro-Clone” comprises a simulation model of the power plant, a Real-Time management system linking the actual power plant with the clone or virtual power plant, a monitoring system with transient phenomena based alarms and finally a data base system with remote access. By sound calibration of the simulation model and by real-time use of in-situ measurements, the transient behaviour of the HPP is instantaneously replicated, generating in this way a representative numerical copy of the real power plant, called “the clone”. Long-term tests performed at La Bâtiaz HPP since 2014 confirm the reliability of Real-Time transient computations of complex waterways, including for example transient pressures, discharges, active power of the different units and surge tank water level oscillations. Cloning of a HPP allows detecting unwanted phenomena such as penstock or gallery overpressures, head loss increases, efficiency degradation, surge tank limits, start-up and shut-down issues, unexpected cavitation and possible water column separations, air intake or unwanted valve closures. Furthermore, the clone is able to minimise the risk of potential harming behaviour of the HPP in the near-future by generating so called ahead-of-time simulation monitoring (ATSM) alarms, based on a series of instantaneous simulations of any potential near-future behaviour of the HPP. As such, by combining RTSM and ATSM in real-time, it is believed that the Hydro-Clone reveals to be a valuable numerical asset for any HPP owner to improve power plant safety.