Write a white paper on how to increase hydropower plant generation reliability

Seeking methods to increase hydropower plant generation reliability through the development of a tool, a group of tools, a continuous monitoring system, or a surveillance system that communicates with existing protection systems to safely perform comprehensive online testing, avoiding the opportunity cost of unit outages. We are looking to develop innovative tool(s) to automate protection system testing at hydropower facilities. Tool or toolset design documentation will be reviewed by a panel of experts to determine if requirements are met, namely: (1) solutions are compatible with relays typically used in the hydropower industry, the solution automates relay input, PT signal, and CT signal verification, (3) the solution automates relay setting verification. This project is envisioned as a two-phase approach seeking improvements and/or new and novel concepts to automate protection system testing hydropower facilities. ● Phase I: White Paper Solutions ● Phase II: Lab Prototypes Phase I submissions shall be presented in the form of a document detailing hardware, hardware schematics, the operation of the hardware, programming code language, program logic diagrams, and a summary of output results. This may include text descriptions and datasheets for proposed solutions including sample results. Submissions shall demonstrate that the freelancer has a thorough understanding of interface requirements and protocols needed to communicate with the various manufactured relays and meters. Looking to have 3 to 7 pages of text, schematics, flow charts with enough detail to demonstrate problem comprehension, and the ability to move from paper solution to prototype for lab demonstration and proof of concept.