Use of pumped hydro energy storage to complement wind energy: A case study

Abstract

The dependency of RES on the weather and climate increased the interest on bulk energy storage methods to supply firm power. Pumped-hydro energy storage systems are a step ahead among other bulk energy storage methods because these are more efficient and they have higher storage capacities. The present study focuses on the use of grid connected wind-pumped hydro power station supply energy. A hybrid wind-pumped hydro storage system was designed and simulated using real data, and economic analysis was performed by calculating the basic pay-back period, the net present value and the internal rate of return. According to the results, it is found that the hybrid system is actively used and a part of the electricity is supplied from the wind-pumped hydro system. In addition, it was obtained that the pumped hydro storage systems are very suitable to be used together with wind power plants.

Hybrid Pumped Hydro Storage Energy Solutions towards Wind and PV Integration: Improvement on Flexibility, Reliability and Energy Costs

“…Thus, a brief economic analysis was conducted, using key financial parameters such as basic payback period (BPP), net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR) presented in Equations (5)-(7) [40,41].…”

“…where BPP is the minimum time to recover the total investment (in years), NPV is the presented value of all future income (€), and expenditure flows and IRR is the rate (%) that makes the NPV zero [41,42].…”

“…where BPP is the minimum time to recover the total investment (in years), NPV is the presented value of all future income (€), and expenditure flows and IRR is the rate (%) that makes the NPV zero [41,42]. Regarding C, it is the total investment cost; AS is the net annual saving; B is the benefit, C the cost, r-the discount rate and n-the lifecycle of the project (years).…”

“…As renewable energy investments represent a significant subset of the infrastructure sector, where PV and wind power investments have already become well established in the asset allocations of institutional investors, hydropower, by contrast, has a more difficult investment opportunity, since it requires significantly higher up-front investment per capacity unit, making it less scalable than wind power or photovoltaic plants [39][40][41][42]. Although, operating pumped-storage power plants is economically viable because electricity can be produced and sold depending on spot market prices, the technical know-how required for hydropower investments is more challenging since the success depends not only on technical and structural components but also on active management.…”

Electrical Energy Large-Scale Storage, A Possible Application in the Russian Federation

“…The solution currently deployed almost universally, which represents nearly 99% of the energy storage capacity available on Earth, is hydraulic pumping: Pumped Hydro Energy Storage (PHES). Its good efficiency of around 75 to 80% and its ability to store several hundred GW on a single site have forged its success [5]- [6]. For example, in China, more than twenty sites have powers close to 20 GW and PHES with a capacity of 50 GW are planned for the coming years [7].…”