State Grid of China switches on world’s largest pumped-hydro station
The State Grid Corporation of China, which is China’s largest state-owned grid operator and power utility, has commissioned, last week, the 3.6GW Fengning Pumped Storage Power Station, a pumped-storage hydroelectric power station located in Hebei province.
The construction of the $1.87 billion project, which was implemented in two 1.8GW phases, was started by engineering company China Gezhouba Group Company Limited in 2014.
The facility consists of 12 reversible pump generating sets with a capacity of 300MW each and has a power generation capacity from storage of 6.612 billion kWh. It is connected to the Zhangbei VSC-HVDC power grid and the North China 500kV power grid, State Grid said in a statement.
Image: State Grid Corp of China
According to the company, the pumped-hydro station will operate as a peaking power plant for the safe and stable operation of the grid by balancing the intermittent power supply from large wind and solar parks located in northern Hebei and Inner Mongolia.
State Grid chairman, Xin Baoan, stressed this is the first time in China that a pumped-hydro storage plant has been connected to a flexible DC network.
According to the National Energy Administration, China is targeting 62GW of operational pumped-hydro facilities by 2025 and 120GW by 2030. Currently, it has 30.3GW of operational pumped-hydro stations, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.
*The article was amended on January 5 to reflect that 6.612 billion kWh is the facility’s power generation capacity from storage, and not its storage capacity, as we previously reported.
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Dave, if the pumping up was 70% eff & 90% for generating then round-trip is A x B, 0.7 x 0.9 = 63%
Natural Inflow upstream of the top allows more generation and at the higher efficiency than just closed circuit pumped hydro (don’t forget natural losses). Any generation or load shifting has losses depending on the distance to nearest loads sufficient to use energy.
If excess solar/wind would otherwise be wasted then storage seems a better option.
There are many variables so YMMV.
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Whats the efficiency of a modern pumped hydro?
Francis turbines have an efficiency of near 70% in pumping mode and over 90% when generating. So, the ’round-trip’ efficiency of PHES is generally around 80%.
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Pumped hydro is the way to go … Hopefuly they can close down a couple of their coal fired generators to help reduce their 30% contribution to atmosphere.
Pumped hydro will create good grid stability. Nice to see.
Is “6.612 billion kWh” correct? That would be 6.612 thousands of GWh, given the installed power of 3.6GW that is storage of cca 2000 hours or 83 days. That does not sound possible.
The rendering shows a lot of storage capacity (denuded hillsides) around the water, which may be because it was recently commissioned and has not had time to fill. That looks like a lot of volume in the rendering.
That is NOT its storage capacity – it is the potential electric power generated FROM storage over a period of one year! Ergo, it should read 6.6TWh/year. It does NOT say how many ‘cycles’ of pumped storage and regeneration that would represent. Does that clarify things?
Hey Dave,
you are right, this is power generation capacity from storage and the statement I have found from the Chinese government confirmed this. At this regard, the statement from the Chinese government was very clear and I misread what they wrote. The article was amended. Thanks for your message.
From The Ecns Website : When operating at full capacity, the plant is capable of storing power generated by renewable energy of up to 40 million kWh.
Mr. Bellini mistook annual power generation capacity and maximum capacity.
That figure would suggest very large lakes – perhaps 100km2 – for both upper and lower reservoirs.
According to here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fengning_Pumped_Storage_Power_Station
we can estimate Capacity = 48E9kg x 9.8 x 425m x 90% (efficiency), which equals 50GWh. That seems more reasonable.
Wikipedia also gives the annual generation as 3400 GWh.
Hey Lukas, these numbers were in the press release from State Grid as in that of the Chinese government.
They have made a mistake. The spec is on Wikipedia. I was about to comment the same thing.
A wonderful effort for present and future generation forecast for good leadership, and greater technology’s that gives global economic growth.
This is cool and interesting. Any idea if how many people this will serve?
It’s not meant to be used on it’s own like a nuclear reactor or a regular hydroelectric plant with an enormous lake behind it. It is meant to smooth out the unreliable and variable nature of renewable energy sources. However, if the renewables in the area supported by this pumped storage completely failed like in Texas last February, then it can provide it’s full 3.6 GW rating for 110 minutes. Normally a 1 GW reactor is good for a million people, 2-3GW wind/solar/storage for the same number of people. So it could support more than 3 million people, full-out if the reservoir was full. But I think it’s meant to absorb small peaks without using peaker plants, and give time to high-efficiency CCGT plants to spin up to higher levels.
The mid-2000s flurry of pumped storage (rebranded “pumped hydro”) project licensing yielded a single puny plant in San Diego County. The American tariff system can’t presently capture (i.e. contractually support) the full range of grid benefits of this demonstrably-economic and long-proven technology. It is sad testimony to the inability of our nation to DO.
Excellent comment
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