IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2020 - 57

The WPTO is currently funding an extensive effort
aimed at producing a comprehensive and objective methodology to assess the value of pumped storage hydro analysis that can be used widely by stakeholders throughout the
hydropower industry. This effort is partially driven by a
lack of information related to the value and cost of providing pumped storage hydro services, which leads to possible
inefficiencies in how existing power and ancillary services
are obtained and compensated. A WPTO-supported Hydropower Value Collaborative team comprising five national
laboratories is devoting extensive research efforts toward
advancing state-of-the-art value assessments of pumped
storage hydro plants to determine their role and contributions to the power system. The five national laboratories are
Argonne National Laboratory (project lead), Idaho National
Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak
Ridge National Laboratory, and Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory. The specific goals of this effort are to
✔ develop a comprehensive and transparent valuation
methodology that will allow for highly consistent valuation assessments and comparisons of pumped storage hydro projects
✔ test the pumped storage hydro valuation methodology
by applying it to two selected pumped storage hydro
projects
✔ transfer and disseminate the pumped storage hydro
valuation methodology and two project results assessment findings to the hydropower industry, pumped
storage hydro developers, and other stakeholders.
The findings from this work can be used to value existing
and proposed new pumped storage hydro projects by industry plant owners/operators and project developers. Regulatory agencies and financial organizations will also benefit
from an enhanced understanding of how to more accurately
value pumped storage hydro.
Techno-economic assessments will be carried out to
validate the proposed valuation guidance at two separate
pumped storage hydro sites with high levels of variable
renewable energy generation in the United States. Technoeconomic assessments will be carried out to validate the
proposed valuation guidance at two separate pumped storage hydro sites with high levels of variable renewable energy
generation in the United States. To inform the selection of
these sites, the WPTO has recently released both a DOE
Request for Information and a Notice of Opportunity for
Technical Assistance, which will serve to solicit proposals
for the techno-economic studies (Figure 4).
In 2014, the DOE funded a study of advanced pumped
storage hydro. The effort was led by Argonne National
Labs with an engineering team including the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory and several industry participants. The study results are available in the report
"Modeling and Analysis of Value of Advanced Pumped
Storage Hydropower in the United States" (see the "For Further Reading" section).
september/october 2020

Summary
Throughout the world, there are numerous new pumped storage project sites in various stages of planning, design, and
construction. Many of these projects will include adjustablespeed pumped storage units. A motivating factor for new
adjustable-speed pumped storage units is the need to address
the impact that increasing amounts of wind and solar photovoltaics have on grid system inertia. DFIM, adjustablespeed pumped storage units, with fast response capabilities,
are expected to play a significant role in grid system
dynamic performance.

For Further Reading
U.S. DOE Global Energy Storage Database. Accessed
on: June 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.sandia.gov/
ess-ssl/global-energy-storage-database-home/
W. B. Gish, J. R. Schurz, B. Milano, and F. R. Schleif,
"An adjustable speed synchronous machine for hydroelectric power applications," IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst.,
vol. PAS-100, no. 5, pp. 2171-2176, May 1981. doi: 10.1109/
TPAS.1981.316767.
"Pumped storage," National Hydropower Association,
Washington, D.C., 2018. Accessed on: June 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.hydro.org/waterpower/pumped
-storage/
"Application of adjustable speed machines in conventional and pumped storage hydro projects," Electric Power
Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA, Tech. Rep. EPRI-TR-105542,
Nov. 1995.
"Modeling and analysis of value of advanced pumped
storage hydropower in the United States," Argonne National Lab., IL, June 2014. Accessed on: June 2020. [Online]. Available: http://ceeesa.es.anl.gov/projects/psh/ANL
-DIS-14-7_Advanced_PSH_Final_Report.pdf
P. J. Donalek, "Role for adjustable speed pumped storage
in the grid of the future," in Proc. Grid Future Symp., Cleveland, OH, Oct. 2017, pp. 1-12.
"Testing voltage of doubly-fed asynchronous generatormotor rotor windings for pumped storage system," CIGRE
Elektra, Paris, France, CIGRE WG A1.34 Report. no. 306,
Oct. 2019.
"Pumped-storage hydro," Water Power Technologies
Office, U.S. Dept. of Energy, Washington, D.C. Accessed
on: June 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.energy.gov/
eere/water/pumped-storage-hydropower
R. D. Barnett, "The Niagara alternators: Competing
alternatives and frequencies [History]," IEEE Power Energy Mag., vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 96-104, Sept.-Oct. 2018, doi:
10.1109/MPE.2018.2841461

Biography
Peter J. Donalek is with Stantec Consulting Services Inc.,
Chicago, Illinois.
p&e
ieee power & energy magazine

https://www.sandia.gov/ess-ssl/global-energy-storage-database-home/ https://www.sandia.gov/ess-ssl/global-energy-storage-database-home/ https://www.hydro.org/waterpower/pumped-storage/ https://www.hydro.org/waterpower/pumped-storage/ https://ceeesa.es.anl.gov/projects/psh/ANL-DIS-14-7_Advanced_PSH_Final_Report.pdf https://ceeesa.es.anl.gov/projects/psh/ANL-DIS-14-7_Advanced_PSH_Final_Report.pdf https://www.energy.gov/eere/water/pumped-storage-hydropower https://www.energy.gov/eere/water/pumped-storage-hydropower

IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2020

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