Pumped storage |
Above: Entura specialists on a site visit in Odisha (L to R: Baijayanta Bhattacharjee, Vibhor Gupta, Pradipta Swain, Dipankar Dey)
Above: Pradipta Swain and Sunita Pant at Entura’s booth at the 2024 ICOLD conference in India, at which Entura presented two papers on pumped storage hydro
many opportunities for consultancies like ours to bring our Australian experience and skills to support the roll-out of new pumped storage hydro in India.
New opportunities for conventional
hydropower At Entura, we’re excited about the resurgence in interest in pumped storage hydro as a viable and durable long-duration storage solution to firm variable renewables and provide stability to the grid. However,
there’s also much that conventional hydropower can provide to meet these needs if the scheme is configured to suit the changing needs of modern energy markets. At this stage, it is only hydropower with large reservoirs that can provide the multi-day or even seasonal storage that could be needed in times of sustained low output from wind and solar and to manage uncertainty in the power system, such as earlier-than-expected coal-fired power station retirements or major delays to storage projects. In Tasmania, a staged program of upgrade works is underway to support a potential redevelopment of the 80+year-old Tarraleah hydropower scheme, adding more capacity and flexibility to enable this conventional hydropower scheme to better meet the changing needs of the electricity market. The current construction works include excavation and construction of an approach channel, new intake excavation and concrete structure, a 950 m connecting tunnel, and a downstream portal. This infrastructure will prepare for the future replacement of two existing canals with a new pressurised water conveyance, which is proposed to replace the existing infrastructure, allowing water to be transferred more efficiently to the new higher capacity power station. There’ll surely be many opportunities around the world to consider similar approaches as older hydropower assets reach major decision points.
Above: Lake King William intake under construction as part of the upgrade works underway to support a potential redevelopment of the Tarraleah hydropower scheme
Right: Tarraleah Power Station, Tasmania
16 | July 2025 |
www.waterpowermagazine.com
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