Kongsberg Digital to help Agder Energi improve hydropower operations

Kongsberg Digital and Agder Energi have signed a partnership to explore opportunities for digitalizing hydropower. One aspect of the partnership will be to investigate the use of digital twin technology for hydropower plants and systems.

The purpose of industrial digitalization is to increase insight and collaboration across assets and systems, optimize production and lower risk related to unstable variables, like weather. Digital twin technology is increasingly being applied to sectors like oil and gas and maritime, but the application in hydropower has so far been limited. Now, Agder Energi and Kongsberg Digital will explore the technology’s potential in the hydropower industry.

"The collaboration with Kongsberg Digital will enable Agder Energi to operate hydropower plants even better and more efficiently. Utilizing new, smart digital technology to generate increased value of hydropower is a natural next step for our company," says Frank Håland, Director of Shared Services in Agder Energi.

The initial stage of the partnership focuses on the use of digitalization solutions that give Agder Energi a vastly better way of predicting maintenance needs in the company’s plants. This enables faster decision making and a higher degree of autonomy, which will help ensure more optimal utilization of hydropower in the future. Specifically, the companies will run a pilot project for operations of selected Agder Energi plants.

"Kongsberg Digital has vast experience in offering solutions for predictive maintenance and production optimization in a number of industries, like wind, oil and gas and maritime. Now, we look forward to applying our insights and knowledge to the hydropower industry," says Hege Skryseth, President of Kongsberg Digital and Executive Vice President of KONGSBERG.

The companies will use KONGSBERG’s digital ecosystem Kognifai as a platform for operations and planning applications, and for commercialization of solutions.