Pumped storage | Tools at the ready
Tom Clegg is the Head of Hydropower at Fichtner Consulting Engineering in the UK. With the current pumped storage landscape, he believes it is a very exciting time to be a hydropower engineer
FICHTNER IS AN ENGINEERING consultancy working across all generation technologies and power infrastructure. Headquartered in Stuttgart it celebrated its centenary year in 2022. Globally we have almost 1800 colleagues with a presence in over 60 countries. My role is Head of Hydropower in the UK and Irish markets. I am responsible for managing our hydropower activities within the territory, leading business development and coordinating with the centre of expertise in Stuttgart. This includes managing projects within the territory and acting as a technical specialist in my area of expertise. Fichtner is currently engaged in several pumped
Below: Fichtner is currently engaged in several pumped storage schemes in the UK, including the Glyn Rhonwy pumped storage project in North Wales
storage schemes in the UK. This includes the Glyn Rhonwy pumped storage project located in North Wales. The scheme is interesting in that it will utilise two disused slate quarries to form upper and lower reservoirs with a total generating capacity of 100MW. Aside from this project in tender design stage, we are working on a number of projects in the earlier stages of development. Internationally Fichtner is supporting the Estonian Paldiski project. This is particularly interesting as it utilises what the developer Energiasalv Pakri OÜ terms the “Zero Terrain” concept. In this concept no mountains are required, and the lower reservoir is located in caverns beneath the ground. The upper reservoir is the Baltic Sea on this occasion with a gross head of over 500m and generating capacity of 500MW. We are currently supporting our client with FEED engineering and preparation of tender documentation for the construction contract. Another significant project is the Kokhoav Hayarden Pumped
Storage Project located in Israel. Fichtner, as the owner’s engineer, is supporting our client Star Hydro with design review and construction supervision. The 340MW scheme is currently in the construction phase.
Pump IT tool To assist our clients interested in identifying and
evaluating potential new sites for pumped storage we developed the Pump-IT tool in 2010. The model has been further developed since and covers the topography of the investigated area, its land use, infrastructure, geology and other characteristics. Algorithms estimate geometrical properties of schemes, the distance to the grid, etc. The method enables an automated screening of large areas, to identify and rank pumped storage projects. An overview of the method is provided below.
Methodology
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are designed to manage and analyse geographically referenced data and are a common tool in a number of fields of civil engineering, such as in infrastructure planning and hydrology. The parameters which give merit or disadvantage to a project site are fed into a GIS- model and analysed in order to extract the most suitable areas for developing pumped storage schemes. The identification of potential projects and the
estimate of the capacities are accomplished in a top-down process in the following steps, as identified in Figure 1. The developed method allows screening large areas throughout their extents and selection of the most attractive projects.
GIS-Based Screening The GIS-model is based on a number of sources of geo-information, such as topography and protected areas and is equipped with different algorithms and filters. The algorithms were developed to remove no-go areas or unfavourable cells from the model as well as to identify suitable areas with favourable properties.
GIS-Based Ranking A variety of criteria is associated with every identified project. The ranking of the projects is based on the criteria that can be selected and weighted in accordance with the client’s needs. As a result, the top ranked projects are listed in Class C-Projects.
Cross-Check The resulting Class C-Projects are subsequently checked based on satellite imagery and available maps. In course of the cross-check, some projects are
34 | March 2023 |
www.waterpowermagazine.com
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