OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE 2. Shallow dive. Voith Hydro's modular StreamDiver turbine is designed specifically for small hydro applications where heads and flows are ill suited for traditional hydropower technologies. Courtesy: Voith Hydro tomated. While this can reduce staffing needs, there are many things that need to be considered from an operations and maintenance standpoint, Bob Baginski of Voith Hydro's digital solutions team said. " It's essential to monitor the mechanical equipment in the plant more closely and have a feedback loop with the remote control systems to detect wrong tendencies early and prevent forced outages. Not only the machines themselves have to be monitored, but also the plant auxiliary systems. For example the status of the dewatering pump and the HVAC system health can be crucial for reliable operation of the whole plant. " Safety is another issue with full automation, he noted. " Is it possible to still safely shut down the vanced sensors and data science to improve the operations of their boilers and gas turbines, manufacturers have begun offering similar solutions for their hydro customers. Such systems allow operators to predict possible component failures and determine changes in operations that could extend component life to allow repairs at the most advantageous time. Another factor that advanced data science can help with is predicting output based on changes in local hydrology, an issue of special concern to smaller plants, which are more at the mercy of droughts than large ones (see sidebar) Such upgrades can reach across the plant. Moving from analog to digital metering and governors and from electro-mechanical to solid-state multifunction protection relays can reap dividends. But an increasing number of small hydro plants are being fully auunit if the main closing device is jammed? What safety devices are in place in case of a cooling water supply pipe rupture? Is automatic closure of valves implemented to prevent the plant from flooding? What is the safe shut down concept in case AC power fails? These things and more have to be taken into consideration. " ■ -Thomas W. Overton, JD is a POWER associate editor. 50 www.powermag.com POWER | April 2017http://www.powermag.com