Dewatering, wet commissioning, runaway test
Hydropower commissioning software built for wet commissioning, runaway speed tests and civil works that never quite finish on schedule.
A hydro unit is proven in stages that civil, mechanical and electrical scope have to hand off cleanly: dewatered inspection, dry commissioning, wet commissioning under head, and a runaway speed test that only happens once per unit if it goes well. Deskely tracks each unit and its balance of plant as tagged subsystems, so a powerhouse with four units at four different stages stays legible.
- Unit
- Turbine, generator, governor
- Stages
- Dry, wet, load, runaway
- Constraint
- Head and flow availability
- Gate
- Unit energisation
Choose your project type
The problem
Four units, four stages, and a spreadsheet that cannot show any of it at once.
One unit may still be dewatered for penstock inspection while another is under load testing and a third is waiting on a runaway speed test slot that depends on reservoir level.
Civil defects found during dewatering, mechanical punch from the dry run and electrical findings from wet commissioning all land against the same unit, but rarely in the same document.
Deskely holds each unit's mechanical, electrical, governor and protection records against one tag set, so the status of unit three is a filter, not a phone call to the site.
Setting up the register
Penstock, turbine, generator and governor are subsystems within each unit tag.
The powerhouse is modelled by unit, with penstock and intake, turbine and wicket gates, generator and excitation, governor and hydraulic system, and protection each held as subsystems under that unit.
Single line diagrams, hydraulic schematics and equipment lists are parsed into a reviewed register, so mechanical and electrical scope share the same tag rather than parallel spreadsheets.
Balance of plant — intake gates, spillway, switchyard, auxiliary power — is modelled the same way, so a unit's readiness reflects what it actually depends on.
Dewatering and wet commissioning
Dewatered inspection and wet commissioning are separate record sets, not one long checklist.
Dewatered inspections of the penstock, spiral case, draft tube and wicket gates are captured with photos and findings before the unit is ever put under head, and each finding is categorised for whether it blocks re-watering.
Wet commissioning — bearing temperatures, vibration, seal leakage, governor response under flow — is recorded stage by stage as head is applied, with the record set held against the same unit tag.
Because dewatered findings and wet commissioning results sit on one tag, a civil defect found before re-watering is still visible when the unit reaches load testing.
Runaway speed test
The runaway test is high-consequence and the prerequisites are checked, not assumed.
A turbine runaway speed test is run deliberately once per unit, and every prerequisite — governor settings, overspeed protection, vibration monitoring, bearing condition — needs to be signed off before the test is authorised.
Deskely gates the runaway test record on those prerequisites, so the test cannot be logged as authorised while overspeed protection or governor commissioning is still open.
Results — peak speed, duration, bearing and vibration behaviour during the event — are captured against the unit and referenced by the unit energisation certificate that follows.
Handover per unit
Each unit is energised and handed over on its own timeline, independent of the others.
Because units are modelled independently, unit one can be energised and generating while unit four is still dewatered for civil remediation, without either status confusing the other.
The operations team receives a per-unit dossier — dewatering findings, wet commissioning results, runaway test evidence, protection settings and punch history — as each unit closes out.
Preservation routines cover units and auxiliary equipment awaiting energisation, so long idle periods between civil completion and electrical readiness do not become a source of new defects.
Environmental flow, spillway gates and fish passage
A hydro scheme is licensed on more than megawatts, and compensation flow, spillway gate operability and fish passage systems have to be proven before the environmental regulator signs off.
Alongside the powerhouse, a hydro licence typically obliges the operator to release a minimum compensation or environmental flow, operate spillway and intake gates through their full range under load, and keep fish passage or screening systems functional — none of which is generation equipment, but all of which can hold up commercial operation as tightly as a turbine fault.
These systems are commissioned by a different discipline again — civil and hydraulic, not electrical — on a schedule that depends on river conditions and consent windows rather than the powerhouse programme, and their test evidence tends to end up in a separate environmental compliance file that nobody cross-checks against unit readiness.
Deskely holds spillway gate operability tests, compensation flow monitoring records and fish passage functional checks as subsystems in the same register as the units, so the environmental regulator's evidence pack and the unit energisation dossier are built from the same signed records rather than reconciled by hand.
What the dam safety and grid panel reads
The mechanical and civil records a hydro scheme needs before water is put through a unit under load.
A hydro unit sits behind civil works that are commissioned once for the life of the scheme and mechanical plant that is tested unit by unit. The dossier keeps spiral case pressure tests, governor tuning and unit spin records against the same tag the dam safety authority and the grid operator both review.
Hydro unit spin and overspeed test record
The runner, shaft and governor hold stable speed and trip correctly at the overspeed setting
During unit commissioning, before grid synchronisation
Spiral case and penstock hydrostatic test certificate
The pressure boundary carries head without leakage or deformation
Pre-commissioning, before first water admission
Governor and load rejection test record
The unit responds to load changes and full rejection without exceeding pressure or speed limits
Commissioning, before the unit is released for grid duty
Intake gate and trash rack functional test
Water intake control operates correctly across its full range under head
Before first water is admitted to the unit
Spillway and outlet works capacity verification
Flood discharge capacity meets the design flow at the reservoir's operating levels
Before the reservoir is filled to normal operating level
Unit efficiency and capacity test report
Output across the operating head range meets the contractual guarantee
During the performance test, after grid synchronisation
How it runs
From dewatered inspection to unit energisation.
Hydro projects reward a unit-based structure from the outset, because civil, mechanical and electrical scope hand off to each other repeatedly per unit rather than once for the plant.
- 01
Model by unit
Penstock, turbine, generator, governor and protection held as subsystems under each unit tag.
- 02
Parse the tag register
Single lines, hydraulic schematics and equipment lists drafted into a reviewed register per unit.
- 03
Capture dewatered inspections
Penstock, spiral case, draft tube and wicket gate findings recorded with photos before re-watering.
- 04
Record wet commissioning
Bearing, vibration, seal and governor results captured stage by stage as head is applied.
- 05
Gate the runaway test
Overspeed protection and governor prerequisites signed before the runaway speed test is authorised.
- 06
Energise and hand over per unit
Unit energisation certificate issued from signed records, dossier exported unit by unit.
FAQ
Questions about Hydropower scopes.
Keep reading
Power and grid commissioning
The full sector view: subsystems, ITRs, punch categories, energisation and reliability run evidence.
Read morePreservation
Routines for turbines, generators and inverters that sit idle during a long construction programme.
Read moreWalkdowns
Pre-energisation and pre-synchronisation inspections run as structured walks that raise punch on the spot.
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