Pumped-hydro energy storage: potential for transformation from single dams

Analysis of the potential for transformation of non-hydropower dams and reservoir hydropower schemes into pumping hydropower schemes in Europe

Roberto Lacal Arántegui, Institute for Energy and Transport, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, Petten, the Netherlands.

Niall Fitzgerald and Paul Leahy, Sustainable Energy Research Group, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.

EUR 25239 EN - 2012

The mission of the JRC-IET is to provide support to Community policies related to both nuclear and non-nuclear energy in order to ensure sustainable, secure and efficient energy production, distribution and use. European Commission Joint Research Centre Institute for Energy and Transport Contact information Address: Westerduinweg 3, NL-1755 LE Petten, the Netherlands E-mail: roberto.lacal-arantegui@ec.europa.eu Tel.: +31 224 565 390 Fax: +31 224 565 616 http://iet.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ http://www.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ Legal Notice Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of this publication.

Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union Freephone number (*):

00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 (*) Certain mobile telephone operators do not allow access to 00 800 numbers or these calls may be billed.

A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet. It can be accessed through the Europa server http://europa.eu/ JRC 68678 EUR 25239 EN ISBN 978-92-79-23182-7 ISSN 1831-9424 doi:10.2790/44844 Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union © European Union, 2011 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged Printed in the Netherlands

••••

••••

••••

••••

••••

2

3600

!" ####=

VhgE

6 We estimated at 30 – 40 sites being geo-referenced per day for one person not knowing the native language.

7 See Wikipedia and ESRI (www.esri.com) for further definitions

Figure 4: SRTM elevation data download map

SRTM1

SRTM2

SRTM3

SRTM X

Mosaic SRTM files

Extract by country

Final SRTM Raster

Convert to projected coordinate system ArcGIS

Arcmap

Locate remaining dams using Google Earth

Convert KML to SHP

Add XY coordinates

Add dam elevations

Final dam shape file

Add reservoir capacity

Add the geo-referenced dams from GRanD

Convert to projected coordinate system

Figure 6: geo-referencing dam locations

Calculate slope of areas inside buffer zones

Select areas with slope between 0 and 5 degree

Select areas with average elevation 150 metres above the dam under test

Buffer placed around dams under test

Calculate average elevation in the area with slope between 0 and 5 degree with slope

Each dam has a number of potential reservoir sites. Filter sites with largest energy storage in

GWh

Figure 7: TA algorithm flow diagram

Figure 9: determine the horizontal and vertical deltas

µ" V E hg=

Figure 10: ArcGIS areas with slope between 0 and 5 degrees (in green)

Figure 11: Head calculation

Potential dam site

Existing dam/ Dam ID

Head (min. 150 m)

Existing reservoir

0.5km->2.5km

Existing reservoir

0.5km->2.5km

Figure 12: Buffer distance from existing dam to potential dam site or existing second dam

Figure 15: elevation histogram of the dams in Croatia, above 1 000 000 m3 that are analysed in GIS

Figure 14: ArcGIS Croatian map and layers used.

Figure 16: Croatian sample transformation site analysis - Razovac dam

Figure 18: Croatia TA physical “realisable” potential after applying three filters

Figure 20: map of Turkey with the layers included in the analysis

Figure 21: elevation histogram of the dams in Turkey, with a reservoir capacity of 1 000 000 m3 or above

Figure 27: Split of cost for a specific PHS project

•

•

•

10 As [60] suggested “what is important is the difference between off-peak and peak electricity prices, multiplied by efficiency”

•

•

•

•

•

•

European Commission EUR 25239 EN – Joint Research Centre – Institute for Energy and Transport Title: Pumped-hydro energy storage: potential for transformation from single dams Author(s): Roberto Lacal Arántegui, Institute for Energy and Transport, Joint Research Centre of

the European Commission, Petten, the Netherlands. Niall Fitzgerald and Paul Leahy, Sustainable Energy Research Group, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union 2012 – 55 pp. – 21 x 29.7 cm EUR – Scientific and Technical Research series – ISSN 1831-9424 ISBN 978-92-79-23182-7 doi:10.2790/44844 Cover picture: Dam of Cortes II, part of the pumped-hydropower scheme Cortes – La Muela, in Spain. Courtesy of Iberdrola Abstract Electricity storage is one of the main ways to enable a higher share of variable renewable electricity such as wind and solar, the other being improved interconnections, flexible conventional generation plant, and demand-side management.

Pumped hydropower storage (PHS) is currently the only electricity storage technology able to offer large-scale storage as that needed for accommodating renewable electricity under the 2020 EU energy targets.

Compared with the high environmental and social impact of most new hydropower plant in Europe, the transformation of an existing reservoir into a PHS system offers the prospects of a much smaller environmental and social impact.

The authors developed a geographical information systems (GIS) -based methodology and model to identify the potential for transforming single reservoirs into PHS systems, and to assess the additional energy storage which these new PHS could contribute to the electricity systems. The methodology was applied as case studies to Croatia and Turkey.

GIS-based tools have the potential for effective and efficient identification of both national/EU potentials (of policy and scientific-interest) and individual site candidates for transformation (pre-feasibility, project-level). Once the model is set up, improvements to such tools, e.g. allowing better sensitivity analysis, can be effectively applied to the whole of the EU with minimum effort.

This paper first summarises the methodology and tool used and then exposes the results of its application to two countries as case studies. These results limit the assessment to potential sites within 5 km of one existing reservoir (TA) or of one another (TB), and a minimum 150 m of head. In the case of Croatia, it was found that at least a potential of 60 GWh is possible for which can be compared with the existing 20 GWh of storage capacity at its PHS plants. In the case of Turkey a potential of 3 800 GWh was assessed mostly under TA, with 2 potential TB sites providing three additional GWh of storage potential.

How to obtain EU publications Our priced publications are available from EU Bookshop (http://bookshop.europa.eu), where you can place an order with the sales agent of your choice. The Publications Office has a worldwide network of sales agents. You can obtain their contact details bysending a fax to (352) 29 29-42758.

The mission of the JRC is to provide customer-driven scientific and technical support for the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of EU policies. As a service of the European Commission, the JRC functions as a reference centre of science and technology for the Union. Close to the policy-making process, it serves the common interest of the Member States, while being independent of special interests, whether private or national.

LD

-NA

-25

23

9-E

N-N