THE RELEVANCE OF PUMPED STORAGE PROJECTS

THE RELEVANCE OF PUMPED STORAGE
PROJECTS (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Science & Tech)

Context:
The Union Budget for 2024-25 promised that a policy for promoting pumped
storage projects will be brought out for electricity storage and facilitating
smooth integration of the growing share of renewable energy with its variable
and intermittent nature.

Key
points

·      
Importance:
India has planned to create an ambitious 500GW of non-fossil fuel energy by
2030. In around two years, from 2021 to 2023, it created some 23GW of
non-fossil generation capacity. The share of actual renewable power generation
will increase in times to come, but this power will necessarily vary and will
be “infirm”.

·      
Availability:
India has 3.3GW of pumped storage. Main ones are in Nagarjunasagar, Kadana,
Kadamparai, Panchet and Bhira. China leads the world with 50GW of pumped
storage supporting 1,300GW of wind and solar energy. Pumped storage is of two
types: on river and off river. On-river is like any hydroelectric project
supplied by a river. Off-river projects are those that have two reservoirs at
two different levels to which the water can be pumped up or let down under
gravity in a closed loop.

·      
Kadamparai
pumped storage: In Tamil Nadu, at noon on a typical day in July, wind
and solar can generate half of all power. On a summer day, solar plants in
Tamil Nadu currently produce some 5,000MW at noon. Tamil Nadu has peaks of
around 17,000MW to 20,000MW on a daily basis. This year in July, maximum wind
power generated reached 5,499MW and maximum solar reached 5,512MW.

          Pumped Storage Hydropower

·       About: Pumped storage hydropower (PSH) is a type of
hydroelectric energy storage. It is a configuration of two water
reservoirs at different elevations that can generate power as water moves down
from one to the other (discharge), passing through a turbine. The system also
requires power as it pumps water back into the upper reservoir (recharge).

·       Origin: The first known use cases of PSH were found in
Italy and Switzerland in the 1890s, and PSH was first used in the United States
in 1930.

·       Types: PSH can be characterized as open-loop or
closed-loop. Open-loop PSH has an ongoing hydrologic connection to a natural
body of water. With closed-loop PSH, reservoirs are not connected to an outside
body of water.