REVIEW OF PUMP STORAGE PROJECTS

Abstract

The growing economy with corresponding increase in power demand causes more challenges in power sector of developing countries. In India, the increase in peak power demand necessitates energy storage schemes over and above the storage—hydro, oil and gas based peak power plants to ensure power system stability. This growing energy demand has proved to be one of the biggest challenges in ensuring a healthy economic growth rate of the country and needs to exploit all its available natural resources to the fullest in order to bridge the widening demand-supply gap in the power sector. Pumped storage hydroelectricity is a method of storing and producing electricity to supply high peak demands by moving water between reservoirs at different elevations. At times of low electrical demand, excess electrical capacity is used to pump water into the higher reservoir. A pre-feasibility study conducted on the Construction of Additional Pumped Storage Project on Doyang Dam Project has been described in detail in the thesis. The study clearly indicates that the Project is techno-economically viable. This paper aims at studying different pumped-storage projects for improving the energy efficiency and economic sustainability of water systems. The assessment of pumpedstorage solutions, either using river water or sea-water, is seen as a viable option to solve problems of energy production. Pumped-storage is one of the best and most efficient options in terms of renewable resources as an integrated solution allowing the improvement of the energy system elasticity and the global system efficiency. Many existing conventional hydropower stations could be re-engineered to add a lower reservoir and pump-back units to pump the water back to the upper reservoir during off-peak hours, and become combined PSP stations for use with intermittent energy from renewable energy sources. In this assessment of opportunities for new pumped storage hydroelectric plants, the characteristics of existing Indian pumped storage hydroelectric plants (PSP) are reviewed to define criteria for selecting candidate sites for new pumped storage plants. These characteristics are discussed and are presented further. Candidate sites for new PSP using existing Indian hydroelectric plants, non-powered dams and natural water bodies as base plant locations and natural water bodies as auxiliary reservoirs are identified using criteria based on existing PSP.