The new role of sustainable hydropower in flexible energy systems and its technical evolution through innovation and digitalization

Abstract

Hydropower (HP) has played an important role in Europe in recent decades, offering a unique combination of safe, low-cost and clean power generation. Today, it is still one of the largest renewable energy sources (RES), accounting for about 35% of RES electricity generation and its share is estimated to reach 50% by 2025. However, grid stability is threatened by the increasing amount of unregulated energy (wind and solar). Flexibility and dynamics such as energy storage and rapid response are urgently needed to achieve EU policy goals. In such a context, HP can play a key role, not only as a provider of regulated renewable energy, but also due to its ability to balance a renewable energy system in the short term (seconds to minutes) and in the medium/lang term (months or even years) through the use of pumped storage technology. All these aspects underline the new role of hydropower, which aims to strengthen grid stability and power supply resilience, and to enable higher penetration of volatile RES. The study provides an overview of the preliminary results obtained by the working groups of the COST Pen@hydropower action. In particular, it presents a first assessment of the flexibility offered by hydropower today at the European level, focusing an different geographical areas, and confirms the key role of hydropower in future scenarios (30% of the flexibility demand at all time scales met by hydropower). An overview of the digitalization solutions and innovative technologies that support the growth of a new generation of sustainable hydropower and the modernization of existing hydropower plants is also provided.