UrFU Researchers Present AI-Based Hydropower Forecasting

Researchers from the Power Engineering Digital Twins Laboratory at the UrFU Institute of Energy presented their work at the International Forum on Automation and Information Technologies in Energy 2025 (MFES 2025).

The forum brings together engineers, researchers and industry representatives to discuss key digital energy technologies.

This year, the laboratory team presented a multi-level intelligent system for forecasting water inflows to a hydropower plant.

The project is being developed for the Iriklinskaya Hydropower Plant and encompasses several areas:

• establishing a network of automated hydrological and meteorological monitoring stations;

• collecting and analysing high-frequency data;

• developing short- and medium-range spring flood forecasting models;

• developing software to calculate the plant's water and energy operating regime.

By applying artificial intelligence, the system is already demonstrating substantially more accurate forecasts than conventional models. This is important for flood prevention and improved hydropower efficiency.