Integration of fast acting energy storage systems in existing pumped‐storage power plants to enhance the system's frequency control.

This paper suggests the integration of fast acting energy storage systems in existing pumped‐storage power plants as a practical solution to enhance the system's frequency control. The term "fast acting energy storage" is used in the paper to refer to, in the authors' opinion, the most suitable energy storage technologies for the purpose of frequency control, that is, flywheels and supercapacitors. The paper describes the few research works that have so far dealt with the coordination of flywheels or supercapacitors and pumped‐storage or hydropower, and compare the proposed solution with the upgrade of existing pumped‐storage power plants to allow variable speed operation. To finish, the paper describes other side benefits of the proposed solution, discusses the most important barrier for its realization and summarizes a few regulatory changes that have been recently implemented in a few electric power systems which provide some hope for the proposed solution to become a reality. This article is categorized under:Energy Infrastructure > Systems and Infrastructure [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]