How will TIES contribute to sustainable hydropower?

TIES takes an integrated approach to reducing the environmental impacts associated with hydropower operation. The project will develop tools for managing sediments, monitoring and reducing turbine erosion, and improving environmental water-flow management. It will also develop hydraulic and thermal refuges to help protect fish and other aquatic organisms from the effects of hydropeaking and climate-induced thermal stress. Among its targets are reducing fish stranding and spawning-ground dewatering by more than 50% and reducing ecological risk indicators by more than 30%.

What new technologies will TIES develop?

TIES will develop seven technological and digital innovations covering different aspects of hydropower operation. These include optimized turbines for flexible operating conditions, hydraulic and thermal refuges, probabilistic streamflow prediction, proactive reservoir sedimentation management, an erosion supervision tool, digital monitoring of hydropower systems and a visual scenario-analysis dashboard. Together, these innovations are designed to improve operational performance while strengthening environmental protection and resilience. Most will be advanced towards TRL 4–5, providing a basis for further development and deployment beyond the project.

Why does TIES include societal readiness?

TIES recognises that successful hydropower innovation depends not only on whether a technology works technically, but also on whether it responds to societal needs and can be supported by those affected by its deployment. The project therefore embeds Responsible Research and Innovation and a Societal Readiness approach into its activities. Stakeholders and societal actors will be mapped and involved in co-creation processes, while societal indicators will be developed for each of the four case studies. This will help identify potential concerns, understand how costs and benefits are distributed, and ensure that solutions are developed in ways that are inclusive and socially acceptable.

What difference could TIES make to hydropower?

TIES aims to demonstrate that flexibility, renewable energy production, ecosystem protection and societal needs can be addressed together rather than treated as competing priorities. The project targets more than 3% greater turbine efficiency, an extended operating range, improved inflow forecasting, more than 10% greater erosion resistance and substantial reductions in ecological risks. Its results will include exploitable digital and technological solutions, replication guidelines and a roadmap for wider deployment. Ultimately, TIES aims to support a more flexible, climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable European hydropower fleet while strengthening public trust and societal acceptance.

How will TIES support wider adoption of its solutions?

TIES is designed not only to develop and validate new solutions, but also to make them transferable to other hydropower sites across Europe. The project will produce replication guidelines, design manuals, operational tools and an exploitation roadmap that consider different hydrological conditions, investment requirements and site-specific constraints. By validating the innovations in real-world case studies and providing adaptable solutions, TIES will help hydropower operators, river managers, policymakers and other stakeholders assess how the results can be applied in different contexts and support wider deployment of sustainable hydropower technologies.

TIES - Transforming
Hydropower

TIES is a 4-year, EU-funded project that is developing a wide range of predictive and digital tools to create societally-aligned, climate-resilient technologies that will enhance performance and reduce negative impacts.

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Key Innovations

In TIES we are transforming hydropower

through socially-aligned innovations that

will create lasting impact.

About TIES

\\ TIES PROJECT PARTNERS

\\ OUR VISION

The aim of TIES is to transform hydropower production in Europe to ensure its critical role in low-carbon, renewable energy systems.

\\ Our INNOVATIONS

Realising our vision through innovation and expert partnership

Explore our innovative hydropower project, where societal needs, technical ambition, and cutting-edge predictive and digital tools meet.

About TIES

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Innovation 1: Optimized Turbines for Flexible Operating Conditions

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Innovation 2: Hydraulic and Thermal Refuges for Biodiversity

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Innovation 3: Probabilistic streamflow prediction and optimal management

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Innovation 4: Proactive Reservoir Sedimentation Management

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Innovation 5: Erosion Supervision Tool

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Innovation 6: Digital Level Image (DLI) of Hydropower Systems

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Innovation 7: Visual Scenario Analysis Dashboard

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Innovation 8: Operationalizing Societal Readiness

\\ What our experts say

A word from our experienced project team

01 / 07

“TIES in an exciting opportunity to truly unite societal needs for sustainable energy with the needs of technical innovation in the hydropower sector. I am honoured to be leading this ground-breaking project.’’

Eduard Doujak

Project Coordinator, TU Wien

02 / 07

“TIES is an exciting project to help transform hydropower into a more flexible, resilient and sustainable energy source, able to respond to evolving climate, environmental and energy-system challenges. Within this broader ambition, I am particularly motivated by the opportunity to combine advanced experiments and numerical modelling to better understand erosion processes and their impact on hydraulic turbine performance and reliability.”

Elena Vagnoni

Academic Director, EPFL, Switzerland

03 / 07

“TIES is the first EU project I have been involved with where societal feedback can shape the direction of the project. As leader of outreach and communications within TIES, this creates both challenges and opportunities! It will be interesting to see how this develops over the course of the project and I am looking forward to interacting with our stakeholders.”

Mark Langley

EU Project's Manager, WRG Europe Ltd, UK.

04 / 07

“TIES is genuinely interdisciplinary in nature. The project brings together expertise ranging from mechanical engineering and turbine design to environmental sciences, biology, civil engineering, sociology, and policy, all working toward a common goal: advancing hydropower technology while making it more resilient and sustainable.”

Mirko Musa

Assistant Professor, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland.

05 / 07

“TIES offers a unique opportunity not only to develop important innovations for the hydropower sector, but also to experiment with meaningful ways of involving, from the outset, the societal actors who have a stake in the potential impacts of these innovations. ”

Alessandro Sciullo

Assistant Professor, University of Torino, Italy

06 / 07

“Hydopower is a proven technology, serving people for many decades. It is built on many years of experience and accumulated knowledge, but at the same time it continues to develop through new ideas and approaches. For me, this project creates a unique opportunity to learn from the past while contributing to the future. ”

Marko Hočevar

Assistant Professor, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

07 / 07

“TIES is about moving beyond the idea that energy production and healthy river ecosystems are competing objectives. This project provides an opportunity to better understand these trade-offs and develop solutions that make hydropower more flexible while reducing its ecological footprint. This is essential if hydropower is to play a truly sustainable role in the energy transition. ”