D-HYDROFLEX partners joined international partners, researchers, and energy industry leaders at the Cavendish Laboratory to present the D-HYDROFLEX Hydropower 4.0 Toolkit and demonstrate the central Monitoring & Diagnostics platform.
#Cambridge, 22 July 2026
D-HYDROFLEX Final Event successfully concludes in Cambridge
On 22 July 2026, the D-HYDROFLEX Final Event was hosted by the University of Cambridge at Department of Physics – The Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, United Kingdom, bringing together project partners, researchers, industry representatives and stakeholders to present the project’s main achievements and discuss the future of digital solutions for hydropower.
UBITECH Energy actively participated in the Final Event as both the overall Project Coordinator and a core technology provider, leading key technical sessions and presenting the project’s final results.
Project achievements
The D-HYDROFLEX project successfully developed and validated a comprehensive digital toolkit designed to renovate existing hydroelectric assets. Key achievements include:
- Digitalization via Digital Twins: Deployment of AI-driven Digital Twins for both hydro dams and machinery, enabling continuous efficiency analysis, 3D structural modelling, and ISO-compliant vibration condition monitoring.
- Flexibility & Market Integration: Advanced decision-support models for virtual power plant (VPP) dispatch, local smart grid integration, and dynamic techno-economic arbitrage between electricity grid sales and on-site green hydrogen production.
- Sustainability & Biodiversity: AI-based computer vision tools using acoustic cameras for automated fish species identification and counting, paired with real-time water quality monitoring.
- Cyber-Resilience: OT network traffic monitoring utilizing privacy-preserving Federated Learning and xAI anomaly detection
Highlights from the Final Event
- D-HYDROFLEX Monitoring & Diagnostics Centre: Demonstration of how it ingests, processes, and visualizes complex telemetry, predictive maintenance alerts, and operational analytics from all project tools.
- Hydropower 4.0 Toolkit: Presentation of the unified D-HYDROFLEX digital toolkit, demonstrating how digital twins, AI analytics, cyber-resilience, and environmental monitoring come together to digitally renovate existing hydroelectric assets.
- Pilot Validation: Detailed the integration testing outcomes across the project’s 5 demonstration campaigns in 7 European hydropower plants (operated by EDF, TEE, PPC, TASGA, and INTEX).
- Cross-Partner Synergy: Successful convergence of efforts across 18 European organizations, bridging the gap between cutting-edge academic research and industrial-scale plant operation.
Voices from D-HYDROFLEX
“D-HYDROFLEX has demonstrated how digital technologies—from AI digital twins to green hydrogen decision models—can improve their flexibility potential and sustainability footprint. By providing operators with a unified Monitoring and Diagnostics platform, we are empowering hydropower plants to operate with greater flexibility and market competitiveness while maintaining the highest standards of environmental sustainability”, said Katerina Drivakou, Energy Systems Researcher, UBITECH ENERGY
Looking ahead
As the D-HYDROFLEX project concludes its 36-month journey, D-HYDROFLEX consortium partners are focused on accelerating the commercial exploitation and broad deployment of the Hydropower 4.0 toolkit:
- Commercial Scaling: Offering the HYDRO-M&D platform and associated sub-tools as modular SaaS and edge-deployable solutions for hydropower operators across Europe.
- Continued Research & Standardization: Building upon the key exploitable results to advance European standards for digital twin interoperability and cybersecurity in critical energy infrastructure.
- Supporting the Clean Energy Transition: Enabling existing hydro assets to act as flexible, resilient, and eco-friendly anchors for the decarbonized European power grid.
Discover the final results and key achievements of D-HYDROFLEX by visiting https://d-hydroflex.eu/, where you can explore the project outcomes, digital solutions, and latest developments towards a more flexible and sustainable hydropower sector. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for the latest news and insights.
