MINI REVIEW article
Front. Water
Sec. Water and Artificial Intelligence
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frwa.2025.1681345
This article is part of the Research TopicHydrological Simulation and Uncertainty Analysis Methods Based on Data Assimilation and Deep LearningView all articles
Core Technologies for Hydropower Digitalization within the Energy Internet Framework: A Mini-Review
Provisionally accepted
- 1Western Maintenance and Testing Branch, Southern Power Grid Energy Storage Co., Ltd., Xingyi, China
- 2Nanjing NARI Relay Protection Engineering Technology Co., Ltd., Nanjing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Hydropower, a cornerstone renewable energy source globally, is undergoing a transformative evolution through digitalization technologies within the emerging Energy Internet paradigm. This review examines the critical role, applications, enabling architectures, security considerations, and future directions of hydropower digitalization. Digitalization optimizes resource allocation and accessibility, enabling enhanced operational oversight and integration. Key applications include smart monitoring via Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and big data analytics for predictive maintenance, digital twin implementation for equipment prognostics and optimized real-time dispatch, sophisticated water resource scheduling leveraging diverse datasets (meteorological, hydrological, grid demand) for maximized utilization efficiency, and ecological impact mitigation via intelligent flow control and habitat design simulation. Deployment necessitates robust security measures adhering to industrial control standards (e.g., IEC 62443) and often employs redundant network architectures (dual-active or independent operation) to ensure safety and continuity. Future advancement depends critically on progress in interoperability, next-generation predictive digital twins, edge computing, advanced communication infrastructure, and cybersecurity resilience. Collectively, the ongoing evolution of hydropower digitalization technologies represents a vital pathway towards realizing the goals of efficiency, stability, and sustainability within the global Energy Internet.
Keywords: Hydropower Digitalization, Energy internet, Digital Twin, Smart monitoring, Resource scheduling
Received: 07 Aug 2025; Accepted: 15 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cao, Gao, Shi, Mo, Zhang and Zhu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tingxiang Cao, hohaicdx@163.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.