Pumped Storage Hydropower FAST Commissioning Technical Analysis

Technical Report · Wed Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1734671· OSTI ID:1734671

Hadjerioua, Boualem ^[1]; Stewart, Kevin ^[1]; DeNeale, Scott ^[1]; Tingen, William ^[1]; Curd, Shelaine ^[1]; Smith, Brennan ^[1]; Greco, Tessa ^[2]; Stark, Greg ^[2]; Degeorge, Elise ^[2]; Koritarov, V. S. ^[3]; Veselka, Thomas ^[3]; Botterud, Audun ^[3]; Levin, Todd ^[3]; Christian, Mark ^[3]; Saulsbury, James W. ^[4]; Colotelo, Alison H. A. ^[4]

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1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
2. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
4. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

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. The U.S. PSH fleet is composed of 43 projects providing the majority (95%) of utility-scale 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. 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.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Water Power Technologies Office
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830; AC05-00OR22725; AC36-08GO28308; AC02-06CH11357
• OSTI ID: 1734671
• Report Number(s): PNNL--30199; ORNL/SPR--2019/1299
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

13 HYDRO ENERGY
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
FAST
commissioning prize
furthering advancements to shorten time
pumped hydro
pumped storage hydropower