From Dam Sensors to Satellites: RusHydro Is Building an Integrated Hydropower Monitoring System
RusHydro PJSC and JSC Russian Space Systems will develop a comprehensive monitoring system for hydropower facilities. Satellite imagery, drone surveys, and ground-based sensor data will be brought together in a single digital environment, where artificial intelligence will analyze the information.
A cooperation agreement was signed at the Eastern Economic Forum. RusHydro will draw on the capabilities of JSC Russian Space Systems: satellite imagery will help track changes in shorelines and ice conditions, assess flood risks, and monitor the condition of hydraulic structures. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are expected to provide additional data and help refine the findings.
One of the project’s key stages will be the establishment of a Unified Center for Managing Aerospace Surveys. Each year, the center is expected to process satellite imagery covering 20,000–30,000 square kilometers and coordinate 300–500 UAV flights. The resulting data will feed into a unified geographic information system, which will be used to track drone operations and coordinate flights with regulatory authorities.
Combining satellite data with UAV surveys will enable RusHydro to monitor remote and hard-to-reach facilities in Siberia and the Russian Far East in near real time. This could shorten the time needed to identify sites with potential problems, allowing the company to decide more quickly whether further inspections or repairs are necessary.
From One-Off Inspections to Predictive Maintenance
In the near term, RusHydro plans to integrate the Unified Center with its own systems. Artificial intelligence will analyze data from satellites and UAVs alongside information from sensors installed across the company’s facilities. This could enable neural networks to identify anomalies in the operation of hydropower plants (HPPs) and power transmission lines more effectively.
This approach could support continuous, multilayer digital monitoring. In 2026, at the 18th Scientific and Technical Conference “Hydropower. Hydraulic Engineering. New Developments and Technologies,” the company presented its own predictive analytics system based on digital models. The system is designed to forecast technological defects before they occur, enabling threats to be addressed promptly.
From Local Solutions to an Integrated Platform
The agreement with JSC Russian Space Systems marks an important step in RusHydro’s broader digitalization program. The company has made substantial progress in this area over the past five years.
By 2021, modern equipment had been installed at Cheboksary HPP to monitor the safety of the hydropower complex, and a specialized assessment of its condition had been completed.
In 2022–2023, RusHydro began developing a unified diagnostic model covering all dams at Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP. More than 10,000 sensors were incorporated into the automated monitoring system.
The Unified National Electric Grid Research and Development Center (NTC EES) developed an automatic control system for RusHydro’s hydroelectric generating units. The system was tested at Novosibirsk HPP in 2023, and its commercial rollout began by 2025.
By 2026, drone-based dam inspection and neural-network analysis of the resulting data had been successfully tested at Sayano-Shushenskaya, Novosibirsk, and Ust-Srednekanskaya HPPs. The technology is now being deployed at other company facilities.
A Unified Information Environment
The cooperation between RusHydro and JSC Russian Space Systems marks another stage in building an integrated digital monitoring system for hydropower facilities. RusHydro is moving beyond inspections of individual power plants and dams toward comprehensive analysis of the condition of its entire infrastructure. Data from a wide range of sources, including sensors, drone imagery, and satellite images, will be used to create digital twins and analyzed with the help of artificial intelligence.
RusHydro’s experience could also serve as the basis for an integrated export solution for monitoring hydropower plants, dams, and power transmission lines. Such a solution could be in demand in countries with hydropower infrastructure of a comparable scale.
