Including Pumped Storage Hydro in Long-Term Generation Planning

摘要

Among the energy storage technologies used for balancing power systems with intermittent RES, PSP is the only one capable of offering practical means to integrate these uncontrollable electricity producers. This is due to the excellent capability of PSPs to store electrical energy for use when balancing generation and load is needed, as well as to quickly react to compensate the changing grid conditions. However, it is not easy to carry out this task with standard optimization models commonly used for long-term generation expansion planning based on conventional power plants because various specific aspects of PSPs must be addressed as well. If adapted to PSPs, the LCoE concept allows a fairly correct comparison of PSPs and other technologies on the basis of weighted average generation costs. By it, different power plant locations, technologies, risks and cost trends could be taken into account, by using current and future investment, operation, and other costs, as well as the expected cost trends. The LCoE approach also allows a comparative evaluation of the sensitivity to the variation of the most important input parameters, as is demonstrated in the case study presented in this article.