Already on October 21st this year the HYDROFORUM 2026 XVth Polish Hydropower Conference will start its debates at the “Warszawa” (Warsaw) hotel in the town of Augustów. Located in the eastern part of Mazury region, surrounded by lakes and forests, close to the Polish-Lithuanian and Polish-Belarus borders, Augustów is one of the most famous Polish recreation resorts. The name of the town comes from Sigismund Augustus, the last Polish king of the Yagellon dynasty, well known in our history for his role in uniting the Polish and Lithuanian states into the Commonwealth of Two Nations, a regional empire which collapsed in the end of XVIIIth century. Today we are proud that despite of complicated history, Poland and Lithuania are countries more friendly to each other than ever before, our hydropower associations have remained in close relationship for over 20 years and AB Ignitis Gamyba – the owner and operator of the whole Lithuanian public power plant fleet – has agreed to act as the key partner of HYDROFORUM 2026.
In fact, the HYDROFORUM 2026 venue has been selected in view of the planned study visit to Kruonis Pumped Storage Power Plant which is located at the south-eastern coast of the so-called Kaunas Sea — the power plant lower water reservoir. Kruonis PSPP is currently at the end of an upgrade process which includes adding a variable speed unit. The supplier of the unit is Voith Hydro Co. which is another partner of our conference and will host our study visit group at the Kruonis PSPP together with Ignitis Gamyba. The visit to the power plant will be an opportunity to spend few hours in the historical part of the Kaunas city and taste the Lithuanian cuisine in the Berneliu restaurant, famous for serving the national dishes.
HYDROFORUM conferences are annual events of regional European impact, usually organised close to new or recently rehabilitated hydropower installations, representing the goal of conference study tours. The conferences are held in Polish and English, with simultaneous interpretation. The thematic scope addresses professional interests of the hydropower community. The problems of the sector development strategy and conditions precede information on new projects, technical and environmental issues and typical scientific reports, which we leave to the end of the meeting. The possibility of online participation is also under consideration. The final decision on this issue will be based on the number of those interested.
As usual, also this year HYDROFORUM event is co-organised jointly by the Polish Hydropower Association (TEW), the Polish Association for Small Hydropower Development (TRMEW) and the Szewalski Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IMP PAN), which initiated the whole cycle back in 1973. The central item of the conference programme will be again the HYDROFORUM Debate, to be focused on the topics of key significance for Polish and European hydropower sector. Further details will be specified in the coming weeks. In any case, we’ll invite representatives of central offices, broadly conceived hydropower sector and the world of science, as well as independent experts to the panel table. Of course, active engagement of the audience is assumed.
The Conference will be preceded by the National Assembly of Polish Hydropower Association to be held at the same venue on October 20th. The Assembly will be followed by the TEW reception — free of charge for Assembly delegates and TEW guests. Other persons should notify their wish to join the reception at the Application Form or contact directly the HYDROFORUM Organising Committee.
The Conference Proceedings (abstracts and mini-papers) will be available at the registration desk in the printed or electronic (flash-disk) version. Those interested in available options, including the study visit, free subscription of Energetyka Wodna quarterly electronic version and other benefits are invited to mark them in the Conference Application form. The electronic version of Proceedings will be available after the conference as open access from the HYDROFORUM website hydroforum.tew.pl. Authors of selected contributions will be invited to submit their post-conference papers to the Energetyka Wodna quarterly.