Small Hydro – DOE Pronounces Winners of Hydropower Operations Optimization Prize

“The H2Os Prize is an revolutionary method to make sure hydropower continues to play its crucial function in a grid more and more powered by clear power applied sciences,” stated Alejandro Moreno, Performing Assistant Secretary for Power Effectivity and Renewable Power. “These winners are doing essential work to assist enhance hydropower’s means to help a dependable and resilient electrical grid at this time and into the longer term.” 

The successful groups are: 

• First place ($30,000): HydroFlex, led by Masood Parvania on the College of Utah and Grid Elevated 
• Runner up ($10,000): MST_power, led by Rui Bo on the Missouri College of Science and Expertise 
• Runner up ($10,000): Vassar Labs Inc., led by Laxmiprasad Putta 

The next opponents have been additionally acknowledged with honorable mentions: 

• Littoral Energy Methods, led by David Duquette 
• Wenyuan Tang at North Carolina State College 

Whereas the hydropower business is properly established—and has been among the many nation’s largest sources of renewable power for greater than a century—new alternatives proceed to come up to enhance and modernize hydropower applied sciences. A few of these alternatives lie in collectively approaching water administration and energy grid challenges, like balancing strict water launch schedules that hydropower amenities should observe with the necessity to present energy to an more and more advanced electrical grid.  

The H2Os Prize, funded by DOE’s Water Energy Applied sciences Workplace, requested innovators to make use of modeling, mathematical optimization, knowledge science, and machine studying to create new methods for hydropower methods to coordinate with present grid scheduling practices and meet water administration wants, comparable to water provide, environmental circulation necessities, and flood administration.  

This third section of the prize elevated the complexity of water administration necessities, requested opponents to handle longer-term schedules, and added demand profiles that replicate vital photo voltaic integration. The winners have been chosen based mostly on their resolution’s applicability to the hydropower business, scalability and novelty of the method, and variety, fairness, and inclusion issues as a part of the answer.  

The H2Os Prize helps WPTO’s Hydropower and Water Innovation for a Resilient Electrical energy System (HydroWIRES) Initiative by specializing in hydropower’s complementary function as an integrator of variable renewables, like wind and photo voltaic, and greatest leveraging hydropower’s advantages for planning day by day grid operations.

The H2Os Prize is run by the Nationwide Renewable Power Laboratory in partnership with RTI Worldwide. Go to American-Made Challenges to remain updated with related competitions designed to spur innovation in renewable power.