With installations at more than 1,500 hydroelectric sites across ~40 countries - including 42% of U.S. hydro facilities - Emerson is a trusted global provider of automation solutions. Our integrated offerings span control systems, SCADA systems, exciters, governors, and mechanical components, helping hydro plants achieve greater precision, reliability, and operational efficiency.
One Platform Delivers Comprehensive Hydro Solutions
The Ovation Automaton Platform can eliminate risks by integrating control for all plant functions including auxiliary, unit, governor, excitation and vibration monitoring. Reducing the number of configuration and interface tasks associated with multiple systems can result in fewer failure points. This translates into increased reliability and process availability. Integrated control strategies provide early warning of developing faults which help to prevent costly equipment damage and forced outages.
Foundational Solutions to the Modern Hydroelectric Plant
Hydroelectric plants have long lifecycles, with some facilities still operating after more than 100 years. A modernized control solution can improve your ability to dispatch generated power, extend the life of your plant, and improve the plant’s reliability and availability.
Hydro Governors
Pumped Storage & Grid Stability
Excitation & Voltage Regulation
Asset Health & Condition Monitoring
Mechanical Modernization
Modernization Pathways for Today’s Hydroelectric Plants
Modernizing a hydroelectric plant follows a clear progression that includes upgrading core controls to integrating subsystems, enabling fleet‑wide visibility, and layering advanced digital tools that unlock higher reliability, flexibility, and generation efficiency.
Controls Modernization
Emerson offers a comprehensive package of automation solutions to upgrade governors, excitation systems, unit controls, and protection schemes to improve stability, water‑to‑wire efficiency, and responsiveness to grid conditions. With a modern digital control platform, plants can establish a common automation foundation that supports future optimization, fleet coordination, and cybersecurity improvements.
Fully Integrated Hydro Plant Control Solutions
Tightly integrated Ovation control strategies and Emerson-designed mechanical equipment form a solution that increases accuracy, extends long-term reliability and optimizes plant performance.
Mechanical, analog and digital governor upgrades provide immediate, accurate response to megawatt setpoint and frequency disturbances.
Self-documenting, IEC-61131-compliant sequenced-based control with online diagnostics enables consistent unit startups and shutdowns.
Embedded industry-specific algorithms economically allocate power demand to generating units for faster and more accurate response to load changes.
Advanced applications efficiently distribute load setpoints among available operating units or plants to cost-effectively meet demand while minimizing unit wear.
A suite of hydro mechanical solutions such as speed sensing, trip upgrades, and additional solutions for modernizing spillway gates and penstocks, and upgrading vintage OEM parts.
Improving Hydropower Efficiency with AI and Advanced Analytics
As hydropower plants face greater demands for flexibility, reliability, and real‑time decision‑making, AI is becoming a powerful tool for optimizing operations. Ovation AI-enabled applications seamlessly integrates with the control system to turn plant data into actionable insights by using machine learning models to forecast equipment behavior, detect emerging issues, and recommend performance‑enhancing adjustments. From optimizing turbine dispatch and hydraulic efficiency to supporting condition‑based maintenance and reducing unplanned outages, AI helps operators run more efficiently while maintaining grid‑critical stability.
Enhancing Hydropower Performance with High‑Fidelity Digital Twin Simulation
Advanced simulation is becoming essential for optimizing hydropower operations, workforce training, and grid‑responsive performance. Ovation™ digital twin technology mirrors the behavior of turbines, generators, gates, and plant auxiliaries in real time, giving operators a safe, dynamic environment to test control logic, validate equipment responses, and rehearse abnormal or emergency scenarios without risking production.
By integrating high‑fidelity models directly with the control system, hydropower facilities can shorten commissioning timelines, improve operator confidence, and continuously tune plant performance.
Strengthening Hydropower Reliability with Embedded ICS Cybersecurity
Modern hydropower facilities face increasing cyber risk as operational technology becomes more connected and data‑driven. Emerson’s Power and Water Cybersecurity Suite integrates proven ICS cybersecurity capabilities directly into the control architecture to safeguard critical generation assets, protect plant networks, and support NERC CIP compliance.
From continuous monitoring and anomaly detection to secure remote access, patch management, and coordinated incident response, our layered approach helps hydro operators reduce cyber exposure without compromising operational performance.
Enabling Secure and Flexible Remote Operations for Hydropower Plants
Hydropower operators are increasingly adopting remote operations to improve staffing flexibility, reduce travel to remote sites, and maintain continuity during changing grid or environmental conditions. The Ovation Automation Platform enables secure, real‑time remote monitoring and control of hydropower assets, giving operators full visibility into plant status, alarms, equipment performance, and hydraulic conditions from centralized or distributed locations. Built‑in cybersecurity protections help ensure safe access to critical systems, while advanced diagnostics and situational awareness tools support faster decision‑making and streamlined coordination across multiple facilities.
Engineering Insights & Field Proven Solutions
Explore real-world case studies and technical whitepapers demonstrating how advanced hydro automation improves grid stability, optimizes lifecycle assets, and modernizes fleet operations. Download full technical briefs or view project success stories below.
Frequently Asked Questions About Hydro Plant Automation Solutions
A comprehensive hydro power plant control system includes a unifying digital automation platform with a comprehensive hydro power plant control system unifies a single digital automation platform with specialized subsystems, including digital hydro governors, static or brushless excitation systems, plant SCADA, water-to-wire unit sequence controls, and embedded asset health monitoring. A truly unified platform should seamlessly embed advanced capabilities—such as AI-enabled operational analytics, comprehensive ICS cybersecurity suites, and high-fidelity digital twin simulation—directly into the core control architecture rather than relying on disparate, third-party add-ons.
Modern digital governors utilize advanced frequency control and speed droop algorithms to provide immediate, repeatable responses to megawatt setpoint adjustments and grid disturbances. This precise regulation allows hydro plants to quickly step in to balance intermittent renewable energy sources.
Yes. Turnkey mechanical modernization paths allow facilities to upgrade vintage OEM components with high-performance hydraulic power units (HPUs), digital servomotors, and modern turbine instrumentation, linking them directly to a centralized distributed control system (DCS) for fleet-wide visibility.
Videos
AI In Action: Episode 2 Hydropower Black Start & Recovery
Ovation Excitation System - An Integrated Control and Protection Solution for Synchronous Generators
Automated Diagnostics for Rotating Equipment
Renewable Energy Segments
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