government plans use it a second time into reservoirs so that they can also function as energy stores. In an electricity system dominated by renewable energy sources of the future, the Ministry of Ecological Transition wants the reservoirs to be used as a kind of power plant. giant renewable batteries. And to pave the way, the department headed by Teresa Ribera, the third vice president and Minister for Ecological Transition, plans to introduce these ‘batteries’ in the public domain by reviewing their suitability. state-owned reservoirs to serve as“recycled hydroelectric power plants”According to the update draft, National Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) sent by the government this week European Commission.
National Energy and Climate Plan sent to Brussels proposes retrofitting pumped hydroelectric power plants
This roadmap foresees reaching the year 2030 with 81% renewable electricity generation, without coal and with half of nuclear up to date, but 22 gigawatts (GW) of storage this will be achieved through hydroelectric power plants, among other formulas. Currently, the power plants have about 20 GW of installed power. conventional hydropower and only 3.3 GW pumping The largest of them all corresponds to the complex Iberdrola Cortes-La MuelaIt is located in the municipality of Cortes de Pallás in Valencia, with a turbine capacity of 1.7 GW and a pumping capacity of 1.2 GW.
In a conventional hydroelectric power plant, water accumulates in the reservoir and after energy is produced it follows the riverbed or goes to the sea. However, pumping stations include: two reservoirs It is a kind of closed circuit arranged at different heights, which allows water to be stored when demand is low and to produce energy when necessary, and reuses the resource. The challenges of storing energy in the absence of sun, water or air play against the development of renewable energy; However, reversible hydroelectric plants offer the option to act as a kind of giant renewable battery.
According to the energy sector, Spain could become “Europe’s largest battery with this technology”
“HE store the supply of energy via reversible hydroelectric power plants is the key to using an electricity system based on renewable generation; higher penetration scenarios Renewable energy such as those shown in this plan Development of such facilities It will allow the gradual reduction of the need for power plants based on fossil fuels.thus contributing progress in autonomy and energy independence Spanish electricity system” is explained in the National Plan.
Ribera’s goal is thus to encourage usage change. analysis of state-owned reservoirs to use as bottom water tank for new reversible installations. in Spain approx. 1,300 hydroelectric power plantsAlthough about 1000 of them are mini power plants smaller than 10 MW. Most, but not all, are publicly owned, with a system of concessions granted (and many extended) for a period of approximately 75 years in the first half of the 20th century.
The first to expire, next ten years have a total cumulative power of approx. 720 megawatts (MW) 90% owned Iberdrola, Naturgy and Endesa. However, according to industry sources, once the concession expires, the process of economic and environmental viability begins. Added to this is the interest of companies that can appeal so as not to have to get rid of the premises.
“New hydroelectric pumping measures, evaluate, promote and promote this technology“, Deputy director general responsible for energy prospecting, strategy and regulations of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, miriam goodOn the second day of the Annual Wind Congress organized by AEE wind energy employer. Therefore, in addition to the analysis of public reservoirs, the Executive also seeks to encourage private enterprise. simplification of processing for Eliminate “regulatory and administrative barriers” To the development of this technology as determined in the PNIEC draft.
“Europe’s Big Battery”
Building a new pumping plant takes time. Gets about 10 years according to sources in the sector, from the beginning of the administrative procedure until it is initiated. And the current procedure does not support it, determining that the whole process should take about 7 years, so many project owners refuse to start implementation and ask for extensions due to the impossibility of meeting these deadlines, according to the same sources.
Next to you Spanish Energy Storage Association (Asealen) a year ago in February, such facilities are currently blocked for him lack of access to the electricity grid only considered generators and not counted storage technologies increase the use of the existing network. In this case, the new PNIEC considers the adaptation of the electricity grid through Red Electrica planning “with a guess new evacuation nodes and strengthening existing ones”. “Spain is for many reasons, including its particular orography and the dynamism of its companies. Europe’s big battery with this technology,” added this association in a statement.
The challenge of batteries and capacity markets
The government, beyond hydraulic pump stations, batteries -and combined cycles- as pieces of the puzzle to achieve full renewable integration. A 5 megawatt-hour (MWh) wind storage battery owned by the Iberdrola group in Abadiño (Basque Country): The batteries are still at a very early stage with only one plant operating on the Spanish market.
“Storage is coming. The reality today is that there’s been tremendous interest because we’re getting so many requests, but only one factory works today. It works like any other unit of supply, it’s the same as talking about battery, pumping or combined cycle,” explained the director of market operations (OMIE), Yolanda Cuellaron the second day of the Annual Wind Energy Congress organized by the employers’ association AEE. “There’s a lot of appetite,” said Agustín Díaz García, coordinator of Red Eléctrica’s (REE) electrical system studies. Quantifying demands for access to an 11 GW ‘stand-alone’ storage network that is not integrated into a power generation facility but is at the network’s disposal. Of these 11 GWs, only 2 GW received permission. But while there is no further support for this type of system, the perfect storage in the Spanish electricity system is combined cycles, which are gas-fired power stations to generate electricity as they can manage their generation.
After years of meaninglessness, The energy crisis from the war in Ukraine has returned this tech line of fire and through the front door In 2022, they pioneered electricity generation for the first time in ten years, but the main problem they face is their economic viability. In this sense, the Government and companies advocate the development of capacity markets (which reward the supply capacity of technologies rather than production and would be appropriate for batteries as well). this option already in the current European regulation, but as a tool of last resort. The electricity market reform being discussed in Brussels opens the door to some changes to facilitate this market, but what the Spanish Government proposes is to amend the domestic market directive to standardize and expand these services.