Middle Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Plant

Middle Dnipro HPP is the fourth station of the Dnipro hydro cascade and an important source of fast-response and balancing capacity for the Ukrainian grid. The project centred on restoring heavily damaged unit automation — frequency-start functions, station-service regulation, and the reconstruction of a generator controller that had been completely destroyed. Rather than a hardware swap, this was a rebuild of the behaviour of an entire generation-control function on the Emerson Ovation platform.

• Restored frequency-start automation for the hydroelectric station and rebuilt the control functions associated with regulation and management of station auxiliary power.
• Recreated the generator unit controller after complete destruction of the previous control hardware, using the Emerson Ovation automation platform.
• Reconstructed control algorithms from available project documentation, field signals and required operating sequences, then implemented the necessary logic in the replacement controller environment.
• Performed systematic verification of binary inputs and outputs, including equipment status, permissives, interlocks, alarms, start/stop commands and feedback signals.
• Programmed and validated automatic start-up logic, step transitions, readiness conditions, failure handling and sequence supervision for the generator control system.
• Restored a start-from-zero / black-start-type sequence capable of bringing a hydro-generator into operation from a de-energised initial condition without the normal station auxiliary supply — executed automatically once the required external conditions were satisfied.
• Integrated the restored control logic with the wider plant automation environment and verified the operational data required for monitoring, diagnostics and operator control.

The key engineering challenge was not simply replacing hardware, but rebuilding the behaviour of a complete generation-control function. The finished work restored the automated sequencing, field-signal processing and supervisory logic necessary for dependable hydro-unit start-up and operation.