WPTO partners with General Electric to learn how pumped storage hydropower can accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy while helping to reduce local electricity costs.
Water Power Technologies Office
March 9, 2022
minute read time
HYDROPOWER PROGRAM
Grid Reliability, Resilience, & Integration (HydroWIRES)
Project Name: Value and Role of Pumped Storage Hydro Under High Variable Renewables
Project Team: General Electric
Lead Recipient Location: Niskayuna, New York
To fill knowledge gaps on the full value and capabilities of pumped storage hydropower (PSH), a General Electric team studied the value and role of PSH under high variable renewables (or electricity grids with increased wind and solar resources). The team found that PSH could help bring more renewables online faster and cheaper. They also determined that the addition of just one 4-gigawatt-hour PSH facility in California would reduce electricity production costs by $62 million annually and carbon dioxide emissions by 0.5 million tons per year, which is equivalent to the emissions from 110,000 passenger vehicles.
The team published these results in a report in March 2021 to help utilities, public utility commissions, developers, and regional planning organizations better understand the value of PSH and overcome a range of market barriers. Researchers also developed a PSH scheduling tool that can be used to maximize PSH revenue by optimizing energy and ancillary services. In addition, researchers developed grid models for simulating the most recent pumped storage technologies with additional features for boosting grid reliability and resiliency.
Grid Reliability, Resilience, & Integration (HydroWIRES) Projects
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National laboratory team details approaches and develops a tool for developers and other stakeholders to value a full range of pumped storage hydropower services and contributions to the grid. -
Researchers develop a report quantifying hydropower’s contributions to grid resilience and release an accompanying framework and toolkit to allow stakeholders to assess hydropower’s role under various extreme grid conditions. -
Oak Ridge National Laboratory creates a centralized dataset that provides an overview of available resources at hydropower facilities and their energy storage potential. -
National laboratories develop report outlining ways to improve plant models to better represent hydropower’s capability to support the electric grid. -
Study reveals how cross-continental integration of large amounts of wind, solar, and hydropower could support a low-carbon future grid and quantifies system benefit of hydropower flexibility. -
National laboratories contribute to International Energy Agency report on the unique role hydropower plays in service to power systems around the world. -
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory partners with the International Forum on Pumped Storage Hydropower to develop a series of reports on pumped storage hydropower capabilities, costs, and innovations. -
National laboratories and local utility demonstrate how small hydropower and energy storage technologies can provide emergency power to communities during regional grid disruptions.
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