Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ALPHEUS (Augmenting grid stability through Low-head Pumped Hydro Energy Utilization & Storage)
Reporting period: 2021-10-01 to 2022-09-30
ALPHEUS: Augmenting grid stability through Low Head Pumped Hydro Energy Utilization and Storage
Renewable energy, especially wind and solar, is essential for our global efforts to decarbonize and slow the rate of global warming. However, the current electricity grid is unable to handle the intermittent nature of these energy sources, as the consumption of energy by industries and individuals often does not coincide in time with the generation of energy by the wind or sun. When electricity consumption is greater than generation, peaking (or backup) power supplies are needed. In wet mountains regions such as Norway and the Alps, Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS) is used for this purpose, with water pumped to reservoirs on mountaintops during times of excess power generation, then run through turbines back down to reservoirs in valleys during times of excess power consumption. This is the most efficient, mature, and lowest cost (both in terms of Euros and carbon emissions) means of energy storage, which is why over 95% of worldwide utility-scale energy storage is PHS.
However, the Netherlands, Belgium, and other low countries do not have the natural topography needed for PHS, so utility-scale backup supplies here are almost exclusively fossil fuel (gas, coal, oil, or diesel) thermal power plants. Recently, lithium batteries have made rapid progress toward higher efficiency and lower initial costs, but their lifetime is much shorter and carbon footprint much greater, than PHS. Therefore, development of PHS feasible for the low countries would be beneficial for both the environment and the economy.
The main challenge to pumped hydro storage in the low countries is the lack of suitable Reversible Pump-Turbine (RPT) technology that can operate with high efficiency in both pump and turbine modes at low heads. Therefore, ALPHEUS sets out to develop two novel RPT technologies for high efficiency at low heads in both pump and turbine modes. To do so, ALPHEUS consists of engineers and scientists from 4 disciplines: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering, and fish ecology. Finally, the efforts of ALPHEUS come together in the construction of a complete 50 kW physical model of both the turbine and the Power Take Off (PTO), for each turbine type (counter rotating prop and positive displacement). These will be tested under realistic head and flow conditions in the hydraulics laboratory of the Technical University of Braunschweig. Results from the model test will feed back into the mechanical and electrical engineering components of the project, which aim for the conceptual design of a 10MW prototype RPT unit (for comparison, 10MW is the capacity of a large modern wind turbine).
The €5M ALPHEUS project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program, and coordinated by the Delft University of Technology.
Renewable energy, especially wind and solar, is essential for our global efforts to decarbonize and slow the rate of global warming. However, the current electricity grid is unable to handle the intermittent nature of these energy sources, as the consumption of energy by industries and individuals often does not coincide in time with the generation of energy by the wind or sun. When electricity consumption is greater than generation, peaking (or backup) power supplies are needed. In wet mountains regions such as Norway and the Alps, Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS) is used for this purpose, with water pumped to reservoirs on mountaintops during times of excess power generation, then run through turbines back down to reservoirs in valleys during times of excess power consumption. This is the most efficient, mature, and lowest cost (both in terms of Euros and carbon emissions) means of energy storage, which is why over 95% of worldwide utility-scale energy storage is PHS.
However, the Netherlands, Belgium, and other low countries do not have the natural topography needed for PHS, so utility-scale backup supplies here are almost exclusively fossil fuel (gas, coal, oil, or diesel) thermal power plants. Recently, lithium batteries have made rapid progress toward higher efficiency and lower initial costs, but their lifetime is much shorter and carbon footprint much greater, than PHS. Therefore, development of PHS feasible for the low countries would be beneficial for both the environment and the economy.
The main challenge to pumped hydro storage in the low countries is the lack of suitable Reversible Pump-Turbine (RPT) technology that can operate with high efficiency in both pump and turbine modes at low heads. Therefore, ALPHEUS sets out to develop two novel RPT technologies for high efficiency at low heads in both pump and turbine modes. To do so, ALPHEUS consists of engineers and scientists from 4 disciplines: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering, and fish ecology. Finally, the efforts of ALPHEUS come together in the construction of a complete 50 kW physical model of both the turbine and the Power Take Off (PTO), for each turbine type (counter rotating prop and positive displacement). These will be tested under realistic head and flow conditions in the hydraulics laboratory of the Technical University of Braunschweig. Results from the model test will feed back into the mechanical and electrical engineering components of the project, which aim for the conceptual design of a 10MW prototype RPT unit (for comparison, 10MW is the capacity of a large modern wind turbine).
The €5M ALPHEUS project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program, and coordinated by the Delft University of Technology.
ALPHEUS is for the most part progressing as originally proposed. Partners have fulfilled their deliverable and milestone obligations. The project’s first in-person consortium meeting, also including the External Advisory Board, was hosted by Chalmers University in Goteborg, Sweden in June 2022. After two years of virtual meetings (due to covid-induced travel restrictions), the ability to meet in person helped facilitation collaboration by giving consortium members a better understanding of each other’s contributions and challenges within ALPHEUS. In December 2022, the next in-person consortium meeting is planned to be hosted by UGent in Kortrijk, Belgium.
In WP2, Chalmers and ADT developed optimized prototype-scale and model-scale designs of the counter rotating reversible pump turbine (CRRPT), while NTNU developed an optimized prototype-scale positive displacement (PD) device. Within WP2, UniTus completed work on development of a desktop study to assess fish mortality as a function of turbine design parameters. They collaborated with ADT, Chalmers, and NTNU to apply a US-based fish mortality assessment tool called BioPA to the counter rotating and positive displacement devices considered by ALPHEUS. Also in WP2, TU Braunschweig continued construction of the experimental test setup in their hydraulics laboratory. After facing challenges updating their laboratory’s electrical system and acquiring electrical components for the experiments, the laboratory infrastructure is nearly complete.
In WP3, UGent and Uppsala completed design of the axial flux permanent magnet machines to serve as the PTO in the laboratory, and began construction of the lab model setup. In WP4, TU Delft, UniTus, and advisor ATKB carried out field experiments to measure stress levels in fishes at a pump station inlet in a canal on the campus of TU Delft. Tuscia is analyzing the stress levels measured. In WP5, Uni Stuttgart, UniTus, and TU Delft generated maps of characteristics and uses of the North Sea that affect the potential for ALPHEUS-type projects within the EEZ’s of the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. TU Braunschweig further conducted an online stakeholder survey, and began preparations for stakeholder workshops. In WP6, TU Braunschweig continued design of the grid-side inverter. In WP7, ADT published two project newsletters.
Overall, the project is moving toward completion of what was proposed, being a laboratory demonstration of a model scale PDRPT and CRRPT, conceptual design of full scale devices and power take-offs, conceptual design of civil structures and tools to evaluate North Sea sites for suitability of these projects, and modeling of grid performance and costs with ALPHEUS projects built.
In WP2, Chalmers and ADT developed optimized prototype-scale and model-scale designs of the counter rotating reversible pump turbine (CRRPT), while NTNU developed an optimized prototype-scale positive displacement (PD) device. Within WP2, UniTus completed work on development of a desktop study to assess fish mortality as a function of turbine design parameters. They collaborated with ADT, Chalmers, and NTNU to apply a US-based fish mortality assessment tool called BioPA to the counter rotating and positive displacement devices considered by ALPHEUS. Also in WP2, TU Braunschweig continued construction of the experimental test setup in their hydraulics laboratory. After facing challenges updating their laboratory’s electrical system and acquiring electrical components for the experiments, the laboratory infrastructure is nearly complete.
In WP3, UGent and Uppsala completed design of the axial flux permanent magnet machines to serve as the PTO in the laboratory, and began construction of the lab model setup. In WP4, TU Delft, UniTus, and advisor ATKB carried out field experiments to measure stress levels in fishes at a pump station inlet in a canal on the campus of TU Delft. Tuscia is analyzing the stress levels measured. In WP5, Uni Stuttgart, UniTus, and TU Delft generated maps of characteristics and uses of the North Sea that affect the potential for ALPHEUS-type projects within the EEZ’s of the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. TU Braunschweig further conducted an online stakeholder survey, and began preparations for stakeholder workshops. In WP6, TU Braunschweig continued design of the grid-side inverter. In WP7, ADT published two project newsletters.
Overall, the project is moving toward completion of what was proposed, being a laboratory demonstration of a model scale PDRPT and CRRPT, conceptual design of full scale devices and power take-offs, conceptual design of civil structures and tools to evaluate North Sea sites for suitability of these projects, and modeling of grid performance and costs with ALPHEUS projects built.
ALPHEUS is moving forward as planned. At the end of Administrative Period 2 no exceptional results or impacts can be reported yet.