GE Renewable Energy presents a digital solution for maximizing hydropower plant efficiency

Today, innovations in hydropower surges into the digital space. In order to meet rising energy demands, other renewable energy sources are adding to the capacity historically generated by hydropower plants. This has created a need for increased flexibility and the accurate data assessment of power plants and hydro equipment. Hydropower coupled with powerful data and analytics can help utilities manage energy more efficiently than ever before. Today, GE Renewable Energy, a leader in the field of digitized industrial solutions, presented its latest digital intelligent Condition Monitoring System (iCMS) for hydropower plants at HydroVision Tradeshow in Minneapolis.

iCMS, part of GE’s Asset Performance Management (APM) solution, uses machine learning to enhance the efficiency of monitoring and maintenance at power plants, and has the capability to generate up to one percent extra output. The system collects and analyses in real time data, such as temperature, vibrations, acceleration and rotational speed, to look for early signs of mechanical or electrical problems or inefficiencies in a power plant. Both a power utility and GE engineers can then access data through a custom-designed virtual reality “human-to-machine” interface that turns information into interactive and intuitive visual objects. All of this analysis informs predictive modelling that enables fault and maintenance operations to identify and diagnose future faulty components, making repair processes as smooth and as fast as possible.

The iCMS is currently in operation, supporting Pont Baldy, a hydropower plant operated by Energie Développement Services du Briançonnais (EDSB) in the southeast of France. Since December 2015, the iCMS has collected and analyzed almost two Terabytes of raw data per month and has also digested three years’ worth of temperature, maintenance and downtime data previously collected by the utility. As a result, GE is able to generate diagnostic assessments of the remaining lifetime of turbine components, compute a health index for the plant and make operations and maintenance recommendations.

GE Renewable Energy is one of the world’s leading power suppliers, and is able to draw technology and insights from the GE Store. GE’s digital solutions allow for customers to create a clear, simple and global vision of asset performance and management of farms, fleets and systems – including across all renewable sectors.