On June 17, Luculent was invited to the 2026 Academic Annual Conference & Hydropower Development Summit of China Society for Hydropower Engineering, where the company presented a keynote report titled Industrial AI-enabled Intelligent Risk Identification and Optimal Dispatching Application Practice for Cascade Basin Hydropower Operation.

Against the backdrop of the in-depth advancement of the "Dual Carbon" strategy and the accelerated development of the new power system, the hydropower industry is undergoing profound transformation. As pointed out by the company’s experts, hydropower has evolved from a traditional electricity supplier into a regulatory hub and major energy storage pillar of the power system. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the digital and intelligent upgrading of hydropower will be comprehensively accelerated. Leveraging big data and artificial intelligence, the industry will tap into the potential of existing assets and strengthen collaborative basin dispatching.

Nevertheless, hydropower operation faces practical bottlenecks including numerous power stations scattered across vast river basins, interconnected equipment, conflicting multi-objective constraints, rapidly evolving operational risks and great difficulties in cross-station collaborative dispatching. The conventional operation and dispatching model relying on manual experience can no longer meet the development requirements of the new era.

To address these industry challenges, Luculent takes industrial AI as the core engine to build a proprietary "AI Brain" for cascade basin hydropower stations and forge a new model for intelligent hydropower operation and dispatching.

• A 7×24-hour online virtual dispatcher is deployed to conduct all-weather automatic inspection and monitoring, shifting operation and maintenance management from "manual problem-hunting" to "proactive problem alerting".

• A one-stop closed-loop risk management and control system is established to cover the entire process of risk early warning, diagnosis and disposal, enabling traceable and well-documented hidden hazard governance.

• Cutting-edge algorithms including topological analysis, load optimization and water level prediction are deeply integrated into intelligent models to resolve dispatching dilemmas under complex working conditions.

• Visual low-code development tools support drag-and-drop operations to lower technical barriers, empowering hydropower enterprises to realize independent system operation, maintenance and iterative optimization.

This AI-plus-hydropower solution has been fully implemented at China Energy Dadu River Company, setting multiple industry precedents. Two core technologies, namely mechanism-mathematics dual-driven risk perception and causal chain diagnosis, have been pioneered, filling the theoretical gap of the industry’s dual-objective evaluation system covering safety and economic benefits. China’s first fully domestically controllable, graphical one-stop real-time risk management and control platform for cascade hydropower operation has been put into service.

The platform is equipped with 6,700 risk identification and diagnosis models as well as 136 operation optimization models, incorporating more than 20,000 professional optimization suggestions. It seamlessly connects the full business chain of perception and early warning, diagnostic analysis, optimization guidance and disposal feedback, achieving a risk identification accuracy rate exceeding 95%.

Customer statistics show that the project generates an annual economic benefit of approximately 20 million RMB, delivering simultaneous improvements in basin operational safety and economic returns. Appraised as internationally advanced by the authoritative China Society for Hydropower Engineering, the technology was also selected as one of the Top 100 Innovation Cases under the National "AI Plus" Initiative 2026 released by DBC Consulting.

These remarkable achievements are underpinned by Luculent’s robust collaborative framework featuring "Four Integrated Systems", with four specialized centers performing distinct yet complementary functions.

The Data Anomaly Identification Center consolidates the data foundation. It identifies data distortion, mutation, deviation and other defects through multi-dimensional diagnosis, independently learns reasonable ranges of operating parameters from historical data, and pinpoints data hazards overlooked in manual monitoring via multi-data correlation analysis, so as to guarantee reliable dispatching decisions.

The Operational Risk Identification Center enables visualized and manageable risk control. It builds an evaluation system covering operational modes, equipment status and control logic. The center can predict cascading risks such as unit tripping and power outages triggered by equipment faults in advance, and quickly verify the effectiveness of equipment actions after accidents, ensuring no hidden risks remain undetected.

The Operational Optimization Analysis Center focuses on efficiency improvement and cost reduction. It conducts intelligent calculations for scenarios including water level regulation, discharge flow control, unit startup combination and spinning reserve deployment. On the premise of complying with flood control, ecological protection and navigation requirements, the center delivers optimal schemes to generate more electricity with limited water resources and continuously boost the economic performance of hydropower stations.

The Operational Business Guidance Center facilitates the final on-site implementation of technical solutions. On the basin level, dynamic risk portraits and multi-dimensional data dashboards present a panoramic view of overall operational status. At the power station level, intelligent cockpits and screen-aided patrol functions provide precise operational recommendations, greatly easing the workload of frontline staff.

Water nurtures all things, and digital intelligence benefits people’s livelihood.

Luculent will join hands with industry partners to strengthen safety safeguards with higher standards, unlock greater economic value through intelligent dispatching, and consolidate ecological advantages via green technologies. The company will lead China’s hydropower sector into a new intelligent development era featuring full-domain perception, intelligent early warning, collaborative dispatching and autonomous optimization, and continuously contribute digital strength to the delivery of China’s Dual Carbon goals and the high-quality development of the energy industry.