Researchers from Argonne and Idaho national laboratories and Wayne State University are exploring the potential of big data to keep hydropower plants running longer and avoid forced outages. New models will use data generated by sensors on hydropower plant parts to predict how the parts will degrade over time and estimate a part’s remaining life, allowing for timely and cost-effective interventions.
The team will test the models on monitoring and sensor data from the Hydropower Research Institute, which covers 44% of megawatt hydrocapacity in the U.S., along with other maintenance records and sensing data from industry partners. The goal is to ultimately make the models publicly available for use by hydropower plant operators.
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science.