Pumped Hydro Storage

Vision

The World’s Most Sustainable Balancing Power Enabling a Fossil-Free Generation

Long experience

Pumped Hydro’s and SENS team has an extensive experience of renewable energy development and planning

Focus on the future

We are a growing company with co-workers that are all passionate about the same thing – to enable the energy transition and a sustainable future

95%

of all stored electricity is Pumped Hydro

75%

round-efficiency

years life-cycle

Lowest cost of storage

Low environmental impact

Through PHS, SENS is a part of NewSETS - Novel storage solutions for a sustainable transition

With the sole focus on energy storage, NewSets’ project combines demonstrations, feasibility studies and analyses with communication and dissemination to better enable the execution of projects and to highlight efforts to mitigate climate change.

The project includes the demonstration of underground pumped hydro storage and feasibility studies of seasonal heat storage, alongside comprehensive studies of the effects of the storage solutions on the energy system. Behind NewSets is a consortium led by Flexens, with the support of the ERA-Net SES MiCall19 framework.

A sustainable idea for a greener future

The energy transition creates a need for large-scale energy storage, when fossil energy production is replaced by renewable and weather-dependent energy production. We offer the most efficient and mature technology for storing energy. This storage method is characterized by a low-cost, high round-efficiency, large scale, and a long life-cycle of 60 years.

When wind and solar power makes up a larger share of the energy system, the need to store energy increases – to secure the balance between production and consumption.

Pumped Hydro’s innovative solution means a more efficient and flexible pumped storage technology, which is installed in disused mines. This way, the mines are transformed into a positive asset in the green transition. At the same time, costs can be kept down by using existing infrastructure such as access points to the power grid and roads.

Increasing need for storage

With an increasing share of renewable power in the energy production, it is becoming increasingly important to find innovative solutions for energy storage. Solar and wind power are so called intermittent energy sources. This means that their production cannot be planned but instead relies on the current weather conditions. The greater the share of production that these sources account for, the more difficult it becomes to match the electricity production and consumption.

The electricity grid also has its own limitations. These mean that you cannot transport electricity large distances without it costing energy in the form of losses in the grid. To reduce these losses, local energy storage is needed.

In order for the growth rate of sustainable electricity to be able to increase, more investment is needed in storage solutions that can secure the electricity supply at all times. The long-term climate work therefore requires new, innovative technologies for large-scale energy storage.

Our solution

Pumped Hydro Storage’s solution is based on an understanding of the power markets and future revenue streams for pumped storage hydropower plants. We have implemented this understanding in software to simulate revenue streams from electricity trading and balancing services for the power grid. We use the knowledge to design and optimize hydro storage facilities. These are easily adapted to local markets and operating conditions.

Each facility uses a unique and customized management schedule. This maximizes the utilization of the energy storage for the benefit of its owners. The technology itself is proven and consists of pumps, generators, and turbines in a synchronized system. With the help of this, water in a closed system is moved through corrosion-resistant pipes between an upper and a lower reservoir.Because the reservoirs are built in underground mines, the cost of these are low and the environmental impact is minimized.

How it works

Step 1:

Surplus energy in the power grid is used to pump the water and filling up the reservoir.

Step 2:

When there is a power insufficiency, the water is led back to the lower reservoir through a turbine to generate electricity back to the grid.

Our unique and sustainable solution

Pumped Hydro Storage’s solution enables large-scale electricity storage with the help of the proven technology of pumped storage. This is combined with the unique idea of constructing it in abandoned mines. The storage method (PSH) is characterized by low cost, high efficiency, and a long service life.