Table Of ContentThe Institution of Civil Engineers
Pumped storage
Proceedings of the conference organized
by the Institution of Civil Engineers at
Imperial College of Science, Technology
and Medicine, London on 2-4 April 1990
Thomas Telford, London
Conference organized by the Institution of Civil Engineers
Organizing Committee: T. H. Douglas (Chairman),
F. J. L. Bindon, A. G. Cook, B. Hadley, F. G. Johnson,
C. Strongman, R. J. S. Ward, W. S. Williams
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Pumped Storage.
1. Electricity supply
621.31
ISBN 978-0-7277-1586-9
© The Institution of Civil Engineers, 1990, unless otherwise stated.
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Contents
Keynote address. D.G. JEFFERIES 1
Latest developments
Summit hydroelectric pumped storage project.
D.C.WILLETT 5
Panjiakou combined hydroelectric storage plant.
C.S. CAO 21
Construction of the new Koepchenwerk pump turbine plant
at Herdecke, West Germany. KOHLI 31
Discussion 45
Operational experience
Experience and design features of motor-generators in
pumped storage plants. J.J. SIMOND and H. VOGELE 49
Operation of pumped storage power stations.
P. GUICHON 63
Pumping in a tidal power plant: experience at La Ranee and
main aspects of the turbine design. J.P. FRAU and
P.Y. LARROZE 75
Discussion 97
Pumped storage in South Africa. J.H. HENDERSON and
B.W. GRABER 101
Maintenance of pumped storage plants. B.E. SADDEN 117
Engineering experience in the early years of operation of the
Dinorwig generator-motor. E. BEEDHAM and I.E. McSHANE 143
Twenty years operating experience with reversible unit
pumped storage stations. A. SIDEBOTHAM and
A.S. KENNEDY 157
Performance of civil engineering structures on pumped
storage schemes. F.G. JOHNSON and C.K. JOHNSTON 181
Operation of Dinorwig pumped storage station on the UK
National Grid system. J.R. LOWEN and AJ. STEVENSON 199
Lay-out criteria, in situ tests and operational experience of
the Kiihtai pump-turbine groups. H. SCHMID and
R. ERLACHER 2lb
Sixteen years operating and maintenance experience of 1000
MW four unit Northfield pumped storage plant.
A. FERREIRA 229
Discussion 253
Evolving roles and other forms
Pumped storage accumulation and generation in the
Netherlands. H. VANTONGEREN, L. GILDE,
J.A. DE RIDDER, A.L. VAN SCHAIK, CJ. SPAARGAREN,
D.P. DE WILDE and E.R. TEGELBERG 263
Pumped storage: the environmentally acceptable solution.
R. WATTS 279
Pumped storage in the proposed Mersey tidal power
project. E.T. HAWS, E. A. WILSON and H.R. GIBSON 295
Afiamalu pump assisted by hydro power project, Western
Samoa. H. GUDGE and A.B. HAWKINS 313
Discussion 325
How the Hungarian energy system can be rationalized by
pumped storage. I. SZEREDI 329
Some recent pumped storage studies in the UK. J.G. COWIE,
T.H. DOUGLAS and TJ.M. PATERSON
341
Planning of the Guangzhou pumped storage power station:
the first high water head large capacity pumped storage
power station in mainland China. Y.Z. CAI 357
Discussion 36 7
Hydraulics workshop
Consideration of transient phenomena from load rejection in
the waterway of Shimogo pumped-storage power station.
H. HORI and M. KASHIWAYANAGI 373
Workshop summary. C.P. STRONGMAN 375
RO Vs workshop
Use of submersible ROVs for the inspection and repair of
hydroelectric station tunnels. R.E. HEFFRON 377
UK experience of inspecting hydraulic systems using
remotely operated submersible equipment. T.H. DOUGLAS,
C.F. LADD and C.K. JOHNSTON 389
Linings workshop
Design of high pressure concrete linings for the Drakensberg
pumped storage scheme. P.A.A. BACK 397
Influence of neotectonic activity on the pumped storage
scheme tunnel lining behaviour and failure. J. OBRADOVIC 403
Workshop summary. F.G. JOHNSON 415
Seals and bearings workshop
Mechanical seals for pump turbine duties. R.G. ALBERY 417
The effect on Dinorwig power station plant of providing the
majority of the British power system reserves of frequency
control with the resulting plant development necessary to
maintain that capability. W.S. WILLIAMS 4Z3
Workshop summary. A. SIDEBOTHAM 439
Summary of the proceedings of the conference.
I.W. HANNAH 441
Keynote address
D. G. JEFFERIES, National Grid Company
The generation of electricity using water dates back
many years, but the concept of pumped storage is a
child of the twentieth century.
The oldest pumped storage plant on record,
according to International Water Power and Dam
construction, went into operation at Schaffhausen,
in Switzerland, in 1909 and is still in operation.
The oldest in the UK was at Walkerburn, in Scotland,
and was commissioned in 1920.
There are over 300 pumped storage schemes around
the world, either in operation or under
construction, an indication that pumped storage is
of continuing interest to electricity utilities.
The biggest investment in pumped storage is in the
USA which uses more pumped storage than any other
country in the world. Figures for 1988 show that
total production was 22 900 GW hours.
Smaller pumped storage plants can still do a useful
job, however. One of the smallest stations of this
type exists in West Germany with a capacity of
around 0.6 MW.
The majority of schemes exist in the highly
industrialised nations. Japan has more than 40
schemes with a total output of more than 16 GW.
More than 50 GW of pumped storage capacity is
planned in the near future. The countries
developing the most plant are Japan, USA and USSR.
Japan has identified over 440 potential schemes,
which represent a possible capacity of 329 GW. USA
and USSR have firm plans for 17 GW and 11 GW
respectively.
Pumped storage is not only an established and
proven technology, but, as contributions to this
volume demonstrate, it is one that is developing.
The electricity business is always looking for new
ways to store electricity efficiently, economically
and safely.
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in the
USA, is funding a large research and development
Pumped storage. Thomas Telford, London, 1990 1
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
programme on energy storage, looking at several
options, including the use of compressed air energy
and batteries.
The most advanced of these technologies is
compressed air. In compressed air energy storage,
off-peak electricity is used to pump air into an
underground cavern which may be either natural or
excavated from a rock or salt formation. When
electricity is needed the air is withdrawn, heated
with gas or oil and run through expansion turbines
to general electricity.
In Europe there is a pioneering 290 MW compressed
air energy storage plant at Huntorf in West Germany.
In 1991 the first American plant, constructed in a
500,000 m cavern mined from a salt dome will begin
operation. It will be run by the Alabama Electric
Co-operative and will be capable of generating 110
MW for up to 26 hours.
Large cave plants are also being planned in the
Soviet Union and Israel. According to EPRI, the
total cost of air storage, including engineering,
could be about half that of a pumped hydroelectric
scheme, and much faster to build.
In the UK, these developments are being monitored
closely. The policy of providing system reserve
capacity on the British power system evolved from
the electrical isolation of this system from the
rest of Europe.
The new Pumped Storage Business, part of the
National Grid Company, will be the fourth largest
generator in England and Wales, with a staff of
about 180 people.
It will have to compete in a new environment in the
UK electricity industry where electricity will be
bought and sold in a pool, with a market for both
electricity supply and reserve provision.
As well as its daily, if not minute by minute,
function of helping to stabilise the electricity
supply system in England and Wales, the pumped
storage business intends to play an international
role where possible in this competitive energy
market.
and Dinorwig
Ffestiniog was completed after six years
construction in 1963.
The station is capable of reaching its maximum
output of 360 MW within one minute and can be
operated completely under remote automatic control
if necessary.
The experience of running Ffestiniog paved the way
for the design and construction of Dinorwig, one of
the great engineering feats of the twentieth century.
JEFFERIES
When constructed, Dinorwig was the largest
hydro-electric pumped storage scheme of its type in
Western Europe. It was also the largest civil
engineering contract -ever announced in the United
Kingdom, with 16 km of tunnels excavated into the
heart of the Elidir mountain.
Indeed, the 1800 MW power station at Dinorwig is
one of the largest in the world and is capable, at
its fastest rate, of supplying up to 1320 MW in
around twelve seconds.
It has been designed for a daily pump generation
cycle with a target efficiency of 78 per cent.
To achieve refill of the upper reservoir from empty
takes about six hours of pumping at full load.
The building, construction and equipping of
Dinorwig involved co-operation on an international
scale. More than six years after its completion,
the Dinorwig station frequently plays host to
visitors from overseas utilities who are
contemplating their own pumped storage schemes.
By careful planning at the outset and continued
monitoring when building a pumped storage plant, the
environment can not only be preserved but enhanced.
Both Ffestiniog and Dinorwig's massive generating
equipment, and the associated 400 KV substation,
were sited inside a mountain of slate. The 11 km of
cable needed to connect it to the main national grid
system also runs underground.
Altogether, some two million cubic meters of rock
were excavated and 16 km of tunnelling carried out.
It took the equivalent of 6 000 man years to drill
and blast them.
Dinorwig was built on the site of an old slate
quarry and the results of more than 200 years of
taking slate from the hillside had caused immense
environmental effects. The quarrymen had blasted
into the mountain, leaving holes 600 feet in depth.
During the construction of the plant, the lower lake
was restored to its former size, some of the larger
holes were filled in and the quarry terraces made
safe.
About nine million tonnes of slate were disposed of
within the old quarry workings.
After construction, great attention was paid to
restoring the natural ground cover. Surveys were
made of the various types of top soils and ground
cover vegetation. Heather seeds were collected from
the hillside and taken to the University of Wales'
laboratories at Bangor for propagation. Later these
were planted along the upper face of the dam.
Today it is hard to distinguish Dinorwig from its
environment. Feral goats wander freely along the
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
terraces of the Elidir mountain which contains
Dinorwig and Peregrine falcons nest on the mountain.
Water quality has been maintained and long after
construction, the electricity industry continues to
carry out regular monitoring of the fish population
and to test for water purity.
Pumped storage in the UK has shown itself to be an
economic and efficient way of providing electricity
supply and system stability and it will continue to
do so well into the next century.
Summit hydroelectric pumped storage project
D. C. WILLETT, BSc(Eng), PEng, Acres International Corporation
SYNOPSIS. The Summit Pumped Storage Project will make use of
an existing limestone mine at a depth of 670 m below ground
level to provide 15000 MWh of energy storage (1500 MW x 10 hr).
An environmental assessment has been completed and an applica-
tion for a license to construct the project filed with the U.S.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
INTRODUCTION
1. The Summit hydroelectric pumped storage project which
will be constructed near Akron, Ohio is believed to be the
first project of its type to utilize a fully underground lower
reservoir and associated power facilities. This, coupled with
the relatively high head (670 m/2200 ft) to be developed,
provides this project with significant benefits from both the
environmental and cost standpoints when compared with more
conventional surface-located pumped storage facilities. This
paper briefly describes the development of the project to this
point in time, and outlines the technical and environmental
studies leading to the submission of an application for a
construction license which was accepted for filing by the
Federal Energy Regulatory Authority in April 1989.
BACKGROUND
2. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a number of papers
(Refs. 1-3) were published describing the potential benefits
that might be obtained by locating the lower reservoir of a
hydroelectric pumped storage facility underground. These
proposals were largely in response to the increasing environ-
mental pressures to which conventional surface-located pumped
storage projects were being subjected, particularly in the
U.S.; the Cornwall project of Consolidated Edison, the Blue
Ridge project of American Electric Power and the Davis Mountain
project of Allegheny Power, to name but a few, were abandoned
in the face of intense environmental lobbying concerned at the
potential effects of these projects on fish populations, wet-
lands, aesthetics and other matters.
3. By locating the lower reservoir underground in an exca-
vated cavern, the underground pumped storage (UPS) concept
offered a number of benefits which included:
Pumped storage. Thomas Telford, London, 1990. 5
