Seite - 204 - in Book of Full Papers - Symposium Hydro Engineering

state of Tasmania has already acted as a giant 500 MW battery [5] for Australia, because of the volume of water stored. A brief summary of some of the current hydro storage projects currently being investigated in Australia is given in the following sections. 3. PUMPED STORAGE PROJECTS IN AUSTRALIA 3.1. PUMPED STORAGE HYDROPOWER As the proportion of renewable energy in an energy market increases, the need grows for the stability and consistency provided by utility-scale energy storage. For example, South Australia needs system-wide storage of 500 MW for a period of 10 hours to improve the flexibility of wind farm operators, according to the Melbourne Energy Institute [6]. At the smaller scale of energy storage, the buzz about various types of batteries continues – but the only storage option with a proven track record at the utility scale is pumped storage hydropower. Pumped storage hydropower works by pumping the water stored in a lower reservoir into a more elevated reservoir. The water stored at height can be passed through a turbine on its path back to the lower reservoir, creating electricity as and when needed, and making the best use of the water resource without waste. Fig. 3 How pumped storage hydropower works [7] 204