Design and performance assessment of a pumped hydro power energy storage connected to a hybrid system of photovoltaics and wind turbines

Worldwide, the overdependence on conventional power plants for electricity generation has been one of the most significant economic and environmental challenges. Renewable energy sources have become the most viable option to overcoming this issue. Recently, a hybrid renewable energy system consisting of wind turbines and photovoltaics combined with a pumped hydroelectric energy storage system has received considerable interest. However, neglecting crucial parameters, such as head losses and evaporation rate, might reduce the accuracy of the total simulation performance, resulting in an underestimation of the correct size of each component. This study investigates this issue by proposing a robust approach with a strategy to establish the ideal pipe design through an in-depth techno-economic assessment. A comparative analysis between two different scenarios in which one considers head loss and the other does not is carried out. A wide range of proposed system configurations has been thoroughly investigated. The essential performance indicators employed for designing the proposed system are the renewable energy fraction and the loss of renewable energy, and the results reveal that these two indicators have improved by approximately 8.6% and 3%, respectively. The most significant annual variation between the two scenarios regarding the total demand satisfied by the proposed system and the amount of renewable energy loss is 218.23 GWh and 89.39 GWh, respectively. The pipe efficiency at the pumping and generating modes, which is determined through a sensitivity analysis, ranges between 91-99% and 76-95%, respectively. These findings could assist designers in making initial assumptions about such parameters with reasonable confidence.

Automated summary

Worldwide, overdependence on conventional power plants for electricity generation is a significant economic and environmental challenge. Renewable energy sources are seen as the most viable solution. This study proposes a robust approach to establish the ideal pipe design for a hybrid renewable energy system, resulting in improvements in renewable energy fraction and loss indicators.