Intelligent dispatching and optimal operation of cascade hydropower plants based on spatiotemporal big data

The scope of the IntHydro project is at the centre of the thematic area ‘Digitalisation of traditional industries’ in the RCN Chinese-Norwegian Collaborative Projects on Digitalisation call. The aim of the IntHydro project is to explore and define intelligent hydropower scheduling using ML techniques. The scheduling methodology will address shortcomings in existing hydropower scheduling models to deal with uncertainties brought by the high share of variable renewable energy resources in both Norwegian and Chinese power system. To this end, the primary objective of IntHydro can be summarised as: “Develop and demonstrate a new hydropower scheduling tool based on machine learning techniques, which manages the hydropower plants more efficiently and effectively through optimizing water resource management and multi-dispatch between hydropower and variable renewable energy sources.” In “IntHydro”, NTNU is the grant applicant and will be the project leader. The Norwegian research partners are Smart Innovation Norway (SIN) and HydroCen. The Norwegian industry partners are Østfold Energi and Lyse. Chinese partners are Houhai University, NanJing NARI Water Resources and Hydropower Technology Company, Ltd, and Yalong River Hydropower Development Company, Ltd. The Norwegian partners will be involved in the daily operation of the project and will also be invited into a steering board is the governing body of the project. In addition to being active in the research, the Chinese partner will be advisors to the management group on scientific matters. There will be one PhD student, and the candidate will play a central role in developing methodologies and participate in the other issues.