U.S. agency seeks help to advance hydropower, pumped storage contributions to grid

---Finding a way to make the electric transmission grid more resilient in the face of high levels of intermittent renewable energy generation is a hot topic worldwide.


Mirroring this, the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), in the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, has issued a request for information (RFI) on expanding hydropower and pumped storage's contribution to grid resiliency and reliability.

The office seeks to understand, access and utilize the full potential of the hydropower fleet in the U.S., including pumped storage, to contribute to electric grid resilience and reliability, as well as seeking opportunities for the existing and potential pumped storage and hydropower fleet to expand its contribution in the future.

WPTO plans to use this information to develop a research portfolio with a variety of objectives:

• Lower system costs
• Bring insight to hydropower technology development and research investments
• Promote optimization of hydroelectric resources
• Support a more secure and reliable electric power system

This RFI comes after Congress directed WPTO to produce techno-economic analysis of the value of pumped storage hydropower at two sites with high levels of intermittent renewable energy generation. Topic 1 of this RFI addresses this directive. In addition, the RFI requests information about four other topics:

Topic 1: Techno-economic analysis of pumped storage hydropower at two sites
Topic 2: Hydropower capability, operational impacts and costs
Topic 3: Current operations landscape
Topic 4: Role and value of hydropower in future power systems
Topic 5: Additional research needs

Responses are due April 6.

（Source: HRW）