In the Di-Hydro project, the Friuli Power Plant operated by A2A becomes a testing ground for digital innovation in hydropower. By supporting the development and validation of a Digital Twin for water inflow forecasting, A2A and its partners are paving the way toward smarter, more efficient, and more sustainable hydropower operations.

Storage Hydropower Plants are very complex infrastructures that have the straightforward yet complex task of transforming unpredictable rain and snow into precious, programmable electricity production. Moreover, the best case scenario would have production to be carefully planned months (or even years) in advance. Simply put, it would be awesome if water flowing to the dams could be predictable too, right?

Di-Hydro in Friuli Venezia Giulia – the Italian Use Case

Ph. Ovaro Barrage overflowing

In Di-Hydro, Consortium Partner A2A, one of the major Italian renewable energy providers, is involving one of its hydropower plants as Use Case, the Friuli Power Plant. This plant sits in the middle of the Eastern Alps, located in Friuli Venezia Giulia, a region in the Italian Northeast. Specifically, the Friuli Power Plant collects the water of the Tagliamento river into two reservoirs, one seasonal (Sauris Lake) and the other daily/weekly (Verzegnis Lake). In fact, this Use Case focuses on testing and validating the Digital Twin of the catchment, developed by WaterJade, a model which aims to predict water availability into the storages of the Friuli Plant.

To achieve the complex goal of predicting water availability, it is crucial to first know the characteristics of water intakes, artificial lakes (reservoirs) and hydroelectric turbines. For this very reason, A2A, together with WaterJade, has carried out technical visits to verify specific aspects of the infrastructure, such as:

• the location of the main water intakes and lakes;
• the technical constraints of the water flow rate into the conduits and water intakes, water levels in the dams.

Water Inflow Forecasting benefits

Consequently, A2A also provided a very rich dataset of historical data which has been pre-processed. Then, WaterJade provided to initialise the Digital Twin of the catchment. In the last few months, A2A is validating the long-term seasonal forecasts of the Digital Twin, regarding the seasonal reservoir (Sauris Lake). This process consist in a continuous procedure which includes data integration and comparisons between forecasted and observed values of rain and water flow rates. Furthermore, short-term forecasts, also known as daily/weekly reservoir, will also be part of the Di-Hydro Digital Twin.

By bringing together A2A’s operational expertise and WaterJade’s digital modelling capabilities, the Friuli Use Case demonstrates how collaboration and innovation can make hydropower more predictable and efficient.
This work represents a significant step in Di-Hydro’s broader mission of promoting the digital transformation of hydropower across Europe. Stay tuned to Di-Hydro’s channels to learn more about the project’s Use Cases and our future activities!