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Energies
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Flexibility Solutions and Innovations for Sustainable Hydropower
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Flexibility Solutions and Innovations for Sustainable Hydropower

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A: Sustainable Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 August 2026 | Viewed by 1256

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Vassiliki T. Kontargyri

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, School of Engineering, University of West Attica, 12241 Athens, Greece
2. Department of Digital Industry Technologies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 34400 Psahna, Greece
Interests: power systems; transmission and distribution networks; renewable energy; high voltages; electrical insulation systems; HVDC systems; grounding systems; energy storage systems; microgrids; system flexibility; resilience
Prof. Dr. Theodoros I. Maris

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Digital Industry Technologies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 34400 Psahna, Greece
Interests: transient stability analysis; dynamic behavior of power systems; control systems; modern energy infrastructures; distributed energy resources; smart grids; system reliability; flexibility; resilience

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The clean energy transition is driving the rapid expansion of renewable energy sources, with solar and wind reshaping power system operations and creating an unprecedented demand for flexibility. Hydropower, as the largest dispatchable renewable source, plays a central role in providing grid stability and ancillary services, while also supporting multifunctional benefits such as water supply, irrigation, drought mitigation, and flood control. However, increasing variability, off-design operations, and emerging climatic risks pose operational and maintenance challenges, highlighting the need for innovative strategies and digital solutions to unlock its full sustainability and flexibility potential. This Special Issue will explore digital solutions, innovative technologies, and operational strategies that can unlock the sustainability and flexibility potential of hydropower.

We invite contributions that address technical, economic, environmental, and social dimensions of this transition, including topics such as the following:

  • Digitalization for predictive maintenance, efficiency improvement, and safer operation;
  • Hybridization of hydropower with other renewable energy sources;
  • Enhancing flexibility and ancillary services provision;
  • Environmental and social aspects of hydropower operation under changing climatic conditions;
  • Policy and market frameworks for sustainable and flexible hydropower.

By bringing together diverse perspectives, the Special Issue aims to highlight how hydropower can continue to play a pivotal role in the renewable energy future, while ensuring resilience, sustainability, and alignment with the broader goals of the green and digital transitions.

Dr. Vassiliki T. Kontargyri
Prof. Dr. Theodoros I. Maris
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • flexible operation of hydropower plants
  • control strategies in hydropower systems
  • optimization techniques for hydropower flexibility
  • hydraulic and turbine dynamics
  • pumped hydro energy storage systems
  • techno-economic assessment
  • digital twin in hydropower
  • dynamic operation modeling
  • data management algorithms
  • hydropower technologies

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 8946 KB  
Article
Joint Scheduling and Coordinating Operation of a Mega Hydropower System Based on Gaussian Radial Basis Functions and the Borg Algorithm in the Upper Yangtze River, China
by Shenglian Guo, Chenglong Li, Bokai Sun, Xiaoya Wang, Peng Li and Le Guo
Energies 2026, 19(10), 2352; https://doi.org/10.3390/en19102352 - 14 May 2026
Abstract
A large number of reservoirs (or hydropower plants) have been constructed for flood control and energy production in the past several decades in the Yangtze River basin in China. The conventional scheduling rule curves (Scheme A) were designed in the reservoir construction period [...] Read more.
A large number of reservoirs (or hydropower plants) have been constructed for flood control and energy production in the past several decades in the Yangtze River basin in China. The conventional scheduling rule curves (Scheme A) were designed in the reservoir construction period and did not consider river flow alternation, which needs to be modified to increase comprehensive benefits in the reservoir operation period. In this study, six large-scale cascade reservoirs or mega hydropower systems constructed and operated by the China Yangtze Three Gorges Cooperation were selected for this case study. The current joint scheduling plans of cascade reservoirs (Scheme B) were introduced, and a joint scheduling and multi-objective coordinating operation model (Scheme C) was proposed for this mega hydropower system. The Gaussian radial basis functions (GRBFs) were used to fit operation policies of each reservoir, and the Borg multi-objective evolutionary algorithm was selected to optimize three-objective functions for Scheme C. The observed daily flow data series at main hydrometric stations from 2003 to 2025 were used to simulate and compare different operation scheduling schemes. The results show that the performance of joint scheduling of cascade reservoirs (both Schemes B and C) is much better than the single-reservoir scheduling (Schemes A) with overall benefit; Scheme C-best achieves a comprehensive target of decreasing average annual spillway wastewater by 12.82 billion m3 (or a decrease of 28.5%), increasing average annual power generation by 31.02 billion kWh (or an increase of 10.7%), and improving average annual impoundment efficiency rate by 5.0%. The GRBF can fit reservoir operation policies well, while the Borg multi-objective evolutionary algorithm can quickly converge with high-precision non-dominated solution sets. The proposed joint scheduling and multi-objective coordinating operation model will provide a scientific basis for achieving maximum benefits in flood protection and hydropower generation for the mega hydropower system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Flexibility Solutions and Innovations for Sustainable Hydropower)
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35 pages, 7589 KB  
Article
Numerical Study on the Performance of a Gravitational Water Vortex Hydro-Turbine System with a Cylindrical Basin
by Nosare Maika, Mehdi Khatamifar and Wenxian Lin
Energies 2026, 19(5), 1334; https://doi.org/10.3390/en19051334 - 6 Mar 2026
Viewed by 897
Abstract
Gravitational water vortex power systems are one of the cost-effective systems of extracting low head hydro power. This study investigates numerically a gravitational water vortex power system five-blade turbine rotating in a cylindrical basin for three blade shapes (flat, curved, and vertical twist) [...] Read more.
Gravitational water vortex power systems are one of the cost-effective systems of extracting low head hydro power. This study investigates numerically a gravitational water vortex power system five-blade turbine rotating in a cylindrical basin for three blade shapes (flat, curved, and vertical twist) and three diameters of the discharge orifice at the basin bottom. The numerical simulations adopted a scaled down model using the Froude number similarity and employed the Volume of Fluid, Moving Reference Frame, and SST k−ω turbulence model. The system performance was examined both qualitatively and quantitatively for five turbine rotation speeds over 40–120 revolution/minute (RPM). It was found that blade shape, orifice diameter, and turbine rotation speed have significant effects on system performance. For a specific blade shape and discharge orifice diameter combination, the generated torque and power increases almost linearly at a large rate when the turbine rotation speed is increased from 40 RPM to 80 RPM and then decreases, also essentially linearly, at a much smaller rate from 80 RPM to 120 RPM. The optimal rotation speed was found to be 80 RPM across the speeds considered for all cases. It was also shown that the system with an intermediate diameter ratio performs better for each blade shape and the system with the curved blades performs better than the other two blade shapes. The results further show that for the cases considered, the most favorable operating condition was achieved by using a combination of a five-bladed curved turbine, a medium discharge orifice diameter (do/D≈0.16) in a cylindrical basin, and a rotational speed of 80 RPM, yielding relatively the highest efficiency of up to 62%, which are very good outcomes for such low head hydropower systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Flexibility Solutions and Innovations for Sustainable Hydropower)
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