Unleashing Artificial Intelligence: Monitoring and Diagnosing Large Hydrogenerators

Large hydrogenerators play a critical role in the generation of clean and sustainable electricity from hydropower sources. To ensure optimal performance and availability and to prevent unexpected failures, meticulous monitoring is essential. This article emphasizes the advantages offered by artificial intelligence (AI) techniques in the monitoring and diagnosis of hydrogenerators, benefits that traditional methods lack. Also explored is the application of AI techniques, presenting unprecedented opportunities to enhance the reliability, efficiency, and life span of these generators. Additionally, the article presents two case studies that analyze different types of signals-stray flux and vibration measurements-using an AI-based technique [called the variational autoencoder ( VAE )]. It demonstrates the effectiveness of the AI-based algorithm in clustering signals in a 2D space, based on fault severity, while also highlighting the algorithm's superiority over a conventional method.