Pumped Storage Hydropower (PSH) FAST Commissioning Prize Technical Analysis

Abstract

Report Overview: This report is designed to address barriers and solutions to modern pumped storage hydropower (PSH) development by establishing baseline project development knowledge, defining key aspects of project development, and identifying opportunities to reduce project timelines, costs, and risks. This report's scope includes post-licensing activities and excludes factors related to permitting or licensing. Context: The U.S. PSH fleet is composed of 43 projects providing the majority (95%) of utilityscale electricity storage in the US. However, only one new PSH facility has become operational in the past 20 years. Several factors contribute to diminishing PSH growth in the US, including the magnitude of project costs and financing interest during development and construction; the length of time from project investment until project revenue; permitting challenges and construction risks; competition from other storage technologies; and unrecognized energy storage valuation. Although innovative PSH concepts (including underground, small, and modular systems) have been investigated, widespread application has yet to occur. In short, the time, cost, and risk associated with modern PSH development has resulted in limited recent growth in the United States, despite the rising energy storage demand from increased deployment of variable renewable technologies. FAST Analysis and Prize: To address these challenges, the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office initiated the PSH Furthering Advancements to Shorten Time to (FAST) Commissioning project, aimed at catalyzing new solutions, designs, and strategies to accelerate PSH development. This report uses available data from previous license applications, ongoing project cost data, and other global PSH project information based on a typical closed-loop PSH project. Key Findings: Considering baseline costs, timelines, and risks associated with PSH facilities, this report indicates that across all project development categories, civil works, including the upper and lower reservoirs and water conveyance components, and equipment, most notably the powertrain, comprise the largest portions of overall project capital costs (67% and 26%, respectively; see pie chart). Similarly, the upper and lower reservoirs, water conveyances, and transmission interconnection components require the Representative capital cost breakdown for an example PSH project

Closed-Loop Pumped Storage Hydropower Resource Assessment for the United States. Final Report on HydroWIRES Project D1: Improving Hydropower and PSH Representations in Capacity Expansion Models

“…Entura drew on its experience with projects throughout the world for the benchmarking exercise. However, only one large greenfield PSH facility has been built in the United States in the last 20 years (Hadjerioua 2020), though permits for several proposed facilities have been submitted to FERC, and several have received initial licenses. Most of the proposed costs in FERC applications are held back as proprietary, but the proposed Eagle Mountain facility contains enough detail for a high-level comparison.…”