Value of Pumped Storage in a Thermal System

Construction of pumped storage hydroelectric capacity has not progressed as rapidly as desired particularly in all thermal systems. The wide interest in real but intangible benefits may have diverted attention from the value that will justify the construction of pumped storage capacity namely, low load factor peaking capacity. The wide acceptance of heavy energy penalties applied to pumped storage has also worked against this factor. Careful evaluations of this penalty considering lifetime load factors of thermal equipment with and without pumped storage may show the penalty to be small and, in some cases, a credit.