What are so-called ‘water batteries’?

Answer: Secondary reservoirs that supplement other renewable energy sources.

October 17, 2022 • Government Technology News Staff

One of solar energy’s biggest drawbacks is that we only get it when the sun is up, unless we have ways to store what we don’t use to tap into when the sun goes down. One way to do this is to turn water into batteries … of sorts.

The San Diego County Water Authority has proposed a project that would use the San Vicente Reservoir to make these water batteries. By building a smaller upper reservoir connected to the main one, the city of San Diego would be able to store 4,000 megawatts of energy per day. That’s enough to light up 135,000 homes when it gets dark and there’s no more solar power to draw on.

“During off-peak periods — when power is inexpensive and renewable supplies from wind and solar facilities exceed demand — turbines will pump water to the upper reservoir where it will act as a battery of stored potential energy,” according to the authority’s website. Then when the energy is needed, it will be discharged to flow downhill, through turbines, and back into the main reservoir, meaning no water will be wasted in the process.

‘Water batteries’ could store solar and wind power for when it’s needed

The San Diego County Water Authority has an unusual plan to use the city’s scenic San Vicente Reservoir to store solar power so it’s available after sunset. The project, and others like it, could help unlock America’s clean energy future.

Perhaps a decade from now, if all goes smoothly, large underground pipes will connect this lake to a new reservoir, a much smaller one, built in a nearby canyon about 1100 feet higher in elevation. When the sun is high in the sky, California’s abundant solar power will pump water into that upper reservoir.

It’s a way to store the electricity. When the sun goes down and solar power disappears, operators would open a valve and the force of 8 million tons of water, falling back downhill through those same pipes, would drive turbines capable of generating 500 megawatts of electricity for up to eight hours. That’s enough to power 130,000 typical homes.

Neena Kuzmich, deputy director of engineering for the San Diego County Water Authority, has been working on plans for pumped energy storage at the San Vicente reservoir. Dan Charles for NPR

“It’s a water battery!” says Neena Kuzmich, Deputy Director of Engineering for the water authority. She says energy storage facilities like these will be increasingly vital as California starts to rely more on energy from wind and solar, which produce electricity on their own schedules, unbothered by the demands of consumers.

Californians learned this during a heat wave this past summer. “Everybody in the state of California, I believe, got a text message at 5:30 in the evening to turn off their appliances,” Kuzmich says. The sun was going down, solar generation was disappearing, and the remaining power plants, many of them burning gas, couldn’t keep up with demand. The alert worked; People stopped using so much power, and the grid survived.

Yet earlier on that same day, there was so much solar power available that the grid couldn’t take it all. Grid operators “curtailed,” or turned away, more than 2000 megawatt hours of electricity that solar generators could have delivered, enough to power a small city. That electricity was wasted, and there was no way to store it for later, when grid operators desperately needed it.

“We have a problem if we’re going to have these continuous heat waves,” Kuzmich says. “We need a facility to store energy so that we don’t need to turn off our appliances.”

Pumped hydro has a history

The technology that San Diego is proposing, called pumped hydro energy storage, is already operating at more than 40 sites in the United States. Some of the largest ones, which can generate more than 1000 MW for up to eight hours, were built during the 1970s and 1980s to store electricity that nuclear power plants generated during the night. But few new plants have been built over the past 30 years in the U.S. China has continued to build such plants.

One of the reservoirs of the Huanggou pumped storage hydropower station, in Hailin, in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province on June 29, 2022. The power station has a generating capacity of 1200 megawatts. Wang Jianwei/Xinhua News Agency/Getty Ima

Now, the need to store power from renewable sources is reviving interest in this old technology in the U.S.

“Just in the past several years, 92 new projects have come into the development pipeline,” says Malcolm Woolf, president and CEO of the National Hydropower Association. Most of the projects, however, are in the planning stages and still need regulatory approval and financing.

Thanks to the climate bill that President Biden signed in August, these projects now qualify for the same 30 percent tax credit that solar and wind projects enjoy. “That is an absolute game-changer,” Woolf says. “A number of these projects that have been in the pipeline for a number of years now suddenly are a whole lot more bankable.”

Water batteries have a lot of competitors, when it comes to storing energy. Some companies, including the car company GM, are exploring ways for the electric grid to draw emergency power from the batteries in millions of privately owned electric cars. Others are working on ways to store electricity by compressing air or making hydrogen. Still others are focused on ways to manage the demand for electricity, rather than the supply. Electric water heaters, for instance, could be remotely controlled to run when electricity is plentiful and shut down when it’s scarce.

Pumping water, however, has some advantages. It’s a proven way to store massive amounts of power. The San Vicente project would store roughly as much electricity as the batteries in 50,000 of Tesla’s long range Model 3 cars. Water batteries also don’t require hard-to-find battery materials like cobalt and lithium, and the plants can keep working for more than a century.

Sign at the upper reservoir construction area gives details of Public Service Company’s Cabin Creek Pumped Storage project, a hydroelectric power installation at an elevation above 10,000 feet near Georgetown, Colorado on April 22, 1965. Denver Post/Getty Images

The biggest problem with them, at least according to some, is that it’s hard to find places to build them. They need large amounts of water, topography that allows construction of a lower and higher reservoir, and regulatory permission to disturb the landscape.

Woolf, however, says the perception of pumped hydro’s limited prospects “is a myth that I am working hard to disabuse folks of.” Pumped hydro facilities, he says, don’t have to be as massive as those of the past century, and they don’t need to disturb free-flowing streams and rivers. Many proposals are for “closed-loop” systems that use the same water over and over, moving it back and forth between two big ponds, one higher than the other, like sand in an hourglass.

Three of the proposed projects in the U.S. that appear closest to breaking ground, in Montana, Oregon, and southern California, all would operate as closed loops.

Kelly Catlett, director of hydropower reform at American Rivers, an environmental advocacy organization which has highlighted the environmental harm caused by dams, says that “there are good pumped storage projects, and there are not-so-good pumped storage projects.”

Her group won’t support projects that build new dams on streams and rivers, disrupting sensitive aquatic ecosystems. But San Diego’s plan, she says, “looks like something that we could potentially support” because it uses an existing reservoir and doesn’t disturb any flowing streams. Also, she says, “I’m unaware of any opposition by indigenous nations, which is another really important factor, as they have borne a lot of the impacts of hydropower development over the decades.”

The board of the San Diego County Water Authority, and San Diego’s city council, are expected to vote soon on whether to move ahead with a detailed engineering design of pumped hydro storage at the San Vicente reservoir. The state of California is chipping in $18 million. The design work, followed by regulatory approvals, financing, and actual construction, is likely to take a decade or more.

Water batteries could soon power 130,000 homes in San Diego at night time

The project is called pumped hydro energy storage.

Loukia Papadopoulos
Created: Oct 14, 2022 08:13 AM EST

The San Diego County Water Authority is planning to use its San Vicente Reservoir to store solar power making clean energy in the region viable, according to an article by NPR published on Friday.

Powering 130,000 homes

The project will take ten years to be built and will see large underground pipes connect San Vicente’s lake to a new reservoir about 1100 feet higher. California’s solar power will pump water into that upper reservoir, storing electricity.

At night, when solar power is unavailable, operators would open a valve releasing the force of 8 million tons of water and driving turbines capable of generating 500 megawatts of electricity for up to eight hours, enough to power 130,000 homes.

“It’s a water battery!” Neena Kuzmich, Deputy Director of Engineering for the water authority, told NPR. A type of battery that is set to be more common as energy systems switch to renewables.

During the day, especially in heat waves, California has so much solar power available that the grid can’t take it all. During the last heat wave, grid operators turned away more than 2000 megawatt hours of electricity. This was wasted electricity that could not be stored for night use where it was needed most.

“We have a problem if we’re going to have these continuous heat waves,” Kuzmich says. “We need a facility to store energy so that we don’t need to turn off our appliances.”

The technology that San Diego wants to install is called pumped hydro energy storage, and a few of these have been built over the past 30 years in the US. Now, there is renewed interest in them.

“Just in the past several years, 92 new projects have come into the development pipeline,” told NPR Malcolm Woolf, president, and CEO of the National Hydropower Association. However, most of them are just in the planning stages.

Qualifying for tax credits

Luckily, the climate bill President Biden signed in August ensures they now qualify for the same 30 percent tax credit from which solar and wind projects benefit. “That is an absolute game-changer,” Woolf says. “A number of these projects that have been in the pipeline for a number of years now suddenly are a whole lot more bankable.”

Even better, the technology has evolved to be more efficient and less disturbing to the natural environment in which it is built. Woolf says pumped hydro facilities don’t have to be as massive as those of the past century and don’t need to disturb free-flowing streams and rivers.

Even Kelly Catlett, director of hydropower reform at American Rivers, an environmental advocacy organization that has in the past warned about the environmental harm caused by dams, says that “there are good pumped storage projects” and that San Diego’s looks like one of them.

Catlett says, “Looks like something that we could potentially support. I’m unaware of any opposition by indigenous nations, which is another really important factor, as they have borne a lot of the impacts of hydropower development over the decades.”

Does that mean that San Diego will soon benefit from stored renewable energy? One can only hope!

‘Water Batteries’ Could Power 135,000 Homes in San Diego

Pumped storage hydropower could make solar and wind energy available for nighttime use and cloudy days.

By  Angely Mercado Published October 17, 2022

The San Diego Water Authority wants to keep the lights on, even when the Sun goes down. It plans to use San Vicente Reservoir to store solar power energy in so-called water batteries to maximize the city’s renewable energy potential, NPR reports.

Cities across California have an abundance of sunny days, which is perfect for providing renewable energy… as long as the Sun is up. The proposed project could store 4,000 megawatt-hours of energy per day, which could power 135,000 homes after the Sun goes down. To make this possible, the San Diego Water Authority would create a smaller upper reservoir just above the existing San Vicente Reservoir. These would be connected by a tunnel system and an underground powerhouse.

“During off-peak periods – when power is inexpensive and renewable supplies from wind and solar facilities exceed demand – turbines will pump water to the upper reservoir where it will act as a battery of stored potential energy,” the San Diego County Water Authority’s website explains.

During times of high energy usage in the area, the system would discharge energy that was stored in the water from the upper reservoir to flow downhill through the turbines. The exchange would be closed-loop system, which means it won’t consume water while putting energy into the local grid.

Systems like this are called pumped storage hydropower, and the principle is already in operation at sites all over the country, according to NPR. Many were built in the 1970s and 1980s to store nuclear energy. The new project would take up to a decade to approve, plan, and construct.

Power storage initiatives like this one could qualify for the 30% tax credit that wind and solar projects are also eligible for, which would motivate investment in more of these projects. There are several closed-loop energy storage projects proposed currently, like one in Oregon that could be completed by 2040 and power about 125,000 homes in the Pacific Northwest, according to the Swan Lake Energy Storage Project’s website.

California officials are hard-pressed to find solutions for the state’s strained grid. Extreme heat and a historic drought have made the state’s residents vulnerable to blackouts. The high temperatures and dry conditions have significantly lowered water levels in large water reservoirs around California, which has slashed the reservoirs’ ability to provide hydroelectric power. The heat was so bad this past September that Twitter’s data center in Sacramento failed.

State officials have pushed even harder for renewable energy sources this year. In April, California’s grid briefly ran on 97.6% renewable energy, breaking a previous record. And as of April, California was also the fourth-largest electricity provider in the country. Pumped storage hydropower projects could not only lower emissions for the state but also be a safety net for communities at risk of power outages.

Pumped storage is having a moment. Will it shift renewables?

By Miranda Willson | 04/15/2022 06:55 AM EDT

A massive clean energy project that doesn’t rely on wind or solar could help solve some of California’s electricity challenges — if it can get built.

Nine years after first proposing the San Vicente Energy Storage Facility, the city of San Diego and the San Diego County Water Authority announced in January that they were in talks with a private developer to advance the hydroelectric pumped storage project, which would be constructed northeast of the city.

The development is an example of what the hydropower industry hopes will be a tipping point for one of the oldest sources of renewable energy, even as some analysts and environmentalists remain skeptical of whether the challenges for water power can be overcome.

“The hydro industry is really trying to showcase the fact that we’re part of the solution for climate change,” said Leonard Greene, head of government affairs and communications at FirstLight Power Resources Inc., which operates traditional hydroelectric and pumped storage projects in New England.

Although the days of sprawling new hydroelectric dams on American rivers may be over, observers see a growing interest in new pumped storage facilities and other hydropower projects that may pose less significant environmental threats while providing benefits to the power grid. Consisting of two reservoirs at different elevations, pumped storage projects use water and gravity to generate power as well as store electricity, which can be released as needed to help balance the power grid.

The trend comes as industry leaders and environmental groups alike are pushing for reforms to the hydropower permitting process that could make it easier to advance certain potentially lower-impact hydropower projects (Greenwire, April 4).

Representing a growing share of the hydropower projects proposed or under development, pumped storage facilities act similarly to a giant battery, but they can store energy for longer than the batteries that exist today. Many of the major projects under consideration, including the one proposed in San Diego, are closed-loop.

That means they aren’t connected to an existing free-flowing waterway, “potentially minimizing aquatic and terrestrial impacts,” according to a Department of Energy report from 2020.

All told, 63 gigawatts’ worth of new pumped storage projects have been proposed to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over the last three years, an amount that’s roughly three times the existing pumped hydropower capacity under FERC’s jurisdiction, according to ClearView Energy Partners LLC in a research note last month. FERC is charged with approving and regulating new, nonfederal hydroelectric dams.  

The heightened interest in pumped storage is likely due to state and federal policies promoting a transition to carbon-free energy, said Timothy Fox, vice president at ClearView.

“Even though battery storage is the dominant new energy storage being deployed, there’s this growing interest for pumped storage because it’s a proven approach for long-duration energy storage,” Fox said. “It will be important for states like California and the [New England] states as they look to decarbonize their grids.”

Currently, the standard timeline for permitting new hydroelectric project is about five years, according to Aaron Levine, a senior legal and regulatory analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

But under proposed reforms to the Federal Power Act backed by the hydropower industry and environmental organizations, the licensing process for closed-loop pumped storage projects could be shortened to three years.

Sent to members of Congress last week, the reforms intend to improve the economic value and environmental benefits of hydropower projects, while promoting healthy rivers and recognizing the rights of Native American tribes.

The proposal is the product of three years of negotiations among tribes, conservation groups and industry leaders. It represents a possible turning point for a sector that has long been at odds with the environmental community and tribes, who say they’ve lacked a say in the development of dams on their land.

So far, some members of Congress have expressed interest in the proposed Federal Power Act reforms.

“Like coal and natural gas, the permitting process for hydroelectric infrastructure is a wasteful disaster,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement. “I look forward to seeing the agreement various stakeholders have reached. I will take time to review their ideas to ensure our American energy producers and families are truly getting the relief they need.”

‘A new area’ for the hydropower industry

The three-year licensing processes outlined in the package would only apply to certain closed-loop pumped storage projects.

In addition, new hydroelectric projects at dams that are already in place but are not currently producing energy would be able to obtain a license within two years.

Aside from pumped storage, hydropower projects at existing, “non-powered” dams represent a significant segment of the new projects being proposed to FERC — and one that also has potential for fewer environmental issues, analysts say.

Overall, the reforms would clarify and improve the current process for permitting closed-loop pumped storage facilities, said Tom Kiernan, president of American Rivers. While closed-loop projects may bring their own challenges, the environmental group is not opposed to expedited licensing for smaller, “non-controversial” facilities, said Kiernan, who helped craft the package of reforms.

“It’s a new area that the industry is enthusiastic about and that we’re looking at closely,” he said. “It’s a different set of challenges we’re all trying to understand.”

Still, observers say the package and low-impact hydropower projects in general are far from a catch-all solution. In practice, new hydropower projects often face opposition on environmental and other grounds, which can make it difficult to site them, said John Parsons, a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“I’m confident that reforms like this can be good. I just don’t think they’re enough,” Parsons said. “I think the divisions in our society really disrupt the sound functioning of normal Democratic processes.”

For example, PacifiCorp’s proposed Crooked Creek pumped storage project in Oregon is already facing skepticism from local conservation groups over the project’s land use and water impacts, according to comments submitted earlier this year to FERC. The Klamath tribes, based in southern Oregon, also said in a January letter to FERC that the project as proposed could potentially destroy sacred areas and burial sites.

PacifiCorp will engage with the Klamath tribes on tribal cultural resources in the region as well as assess any challenges related to water use before moving forward with the proposal, said David Eskelsen, a company spokesperson. PacifiCorp is part of Berkshire Hathaway Energy.

“PacifiCorp is aware of challenges related to water scarcity, and believes there can be creative solutions to address these issues,” Eskelsen said in an email.

It’s also not clear whether pumped storage projects like PacifiCorp’s and other hydroelectric facilities being proposed will translate into actual projects, said Colleen McNally-Murphy, associate national director of the Hydropower Reform Coalition. The environmental group was involved in drafting the proposed Federal Power Act changes.

“We are seeing a lot of pumped storage projects being proposed. That doesn’t mean we’re seeing a lot of pumped storage projects being built,” McNally-Murphy said.

While the San Vicente project near San Diego showcases the potential of pumped storage as a new hydropower solution, it also exemplifies some of its limitations.

If constructed, the facility would be capable of storing enough energy to power 135,000 households for eight hours a day every day of the year, according to the San Diego County Water Authority. That’s critical in California, which experts say will need a significant amount of new energy storage capabilities to decarbonize its power system while avoiding blackouts.

In addition, the project could help solve a recurring problem in California that is also beginning to emerge in other regions, officials said: excess renewable energy that cannot be used immediately and ends up going to waste.

“Currently, San Diego is generating excess solar energy and sending it out of state since there is not sufficient storage to hold that excess energy for later use,” Neena Kuzmich, deputy director of engineering at the water authority, said in a statement. “That requires us to buy out of state power when our demand exceeds supply, particularly for evening use.”

At the same time, the project has been under exploration by San Diego officials since at least 2013, according to public filings from the water authority. While the city and water authority began negotiations with private developer BHE Kiewit in January, they are currently focused on “environmental surveys and feasibility studies,” said Ed Joyce, senior public affairs representative at the water authority.

Often, new hydropower projects will need to undergo environmental reviews under the Endangered Species Act through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said Levine of NREL. They must also obtain a clean water certification through their relevant state agency, Levine said.

That’s in addition to the FERC process, which begins with the obtainment of a preliminary permit.

After obtaining a preliminary permit from FERC, which authorizes studies at the site but no construction activities, developers must then apply for a license. At that point, FERC will conduct an environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act, Levine said.

“There’s a lot of complexities involving what studies need to be completed to understand the impacts the project is going to have,” Levine said.

The process is designed to ensure that facilities can operate safely and that environmental concerns are mitigated, Levine said. Still, Greene of FirstLight Power described it as “incredibly complicated” and costly.

“It is absolutely, ridiculously too long. … To build a solar field or wind farm or battery storage projects tends to be a lot quicker,” Greene said. “We’re at a significant disadvantage.”

‘Hugely helpful’

Under the reforms proposed last week, it’s not clear exactly how the licensing process would be expedited for closed-loop pumped storage projects and hydroelectric facilities at existing dams.

The faster process for closed-loop pumped storage would only apply to select projects that would not harm endangered or threatened species and that would not be sited on tribal lands without the consent of tribes, McNally-Murphy said.

Still, FERC would need to determine what analyses or reviews could be streamlined or eliminated in those cases, said Charles Sensiba, a partner at Troutman Pepper and a lead negotiator for the hydropower industry on the package of reforms.

“It will be a challenge to get them through in just two or three years’ time,” Sensiba said. “There are some ideas that the legislation puts forward, such as reduced studies, a streamlined NEPA [process] … but most of the progress on getting those projects through in two or three years’ time would be something resolved by a new [FERC] rule.”

Based on his most recent research, Levine said that delays in obtaining state water quality permits and authorizations pertaining to potential endangered species impacts are more likely to hold up projects than the FERC process. But those issues would not be resolved through the proposed reforms, since they extend beyond the realm of the Federal Power Act, he said.

“I’ve spoken to a number of the members who were on that working group who developed this, and I think they felt that those were going to be really hard to reform,” Levine said.

Despite that, Greene of FirstLight Power said the expedited licensing process would be “absolutely critical” for new, low-impact projects in particular.

“This is something that would be hugely helpful not just to the hydropower industry, but to helping achieve our climate goals,” he said.

FirstLight is currently in the process of relicensing its Northfield Mountain Pumped Hydro Storage Station in Massachusetts. Typically, FERC licenses for hydropower projects last for 30 to 50 years, after which point they must be renewed. Today, about 30 percent of the installed capacity of nonfederal hydropower projects is currently up for relicensing, Sensiba said.

Part of the aim of the proposed reforms is to modernize the permitting process for those existing projects, too, as developers and regulators consider whether to keep them in place. For environmental groups, that represents a key part of the conversation around hydropower today.

Although hydropower constitutes the largest source of low-carbon power in some parts of the country, aging dams may face environmental challenges and financial obstacles, McNally-Murphy said.

In addition to addressing the licensing process for new projects, the reforms would direct FERC to improve the process for surrendering licenses, adding new requirements for public participation early on in that process.

“This doesn’t cover the entire universe of the world of hydro, but we think we’ve identified some areas that will improve the process in terms of making it more participatory and providing some clarity, as well as supporting our tribal partners,” McNally-Murphy said.

Correction: A previous version of this article described hydropower as carbon-free. While hydroelectric turbines do not directly emit air pollutants, methane and carbon dioxide can be released when organic matter decomposes in a reservoir.

Proposed San Vicente Reservoir hydro facility project aims to meet energy goals

Author: Ariana Cohen
Published: 6:05 PM PST February 11, 2022

“The state has an aggressive renewable state goal with 100% by 2045. With clean energy, this project will help in meeting these goals.”

SAN DIEGO — The leader of a conservation group opposes the idea of building this facility since it could be built on two preserves. Friday, the San Diego County Water Authority explained why it’s beneficial for California.

Neena Kuzmich from the San Diego County Water Authority says the proposed hydro energy storage facility at the San Vicente Reservoir will not only generate power for thousands of households, it will help California meet its energy goals.

“The state has an aggressive renewable state goal with 100% by 2045. With clean energy, this project will help in meeting these goals. It will use renewable energy during the day for later use and it does not emit greenhouse gases,” said Kuzmich.

How it works is the project would create a small upper reservoir above the existing, city-owned San Vicente Reservoir. They’d be connected by a tunnel system and an underground powerhouse.

Water from the bottom would then be pumped up to the smaller reservoir where it’d be stored and eventually released back downwards generating electricity.

Kuzmich says the state allocated $18 million to further advance the construction of the project, something Diane Conklin, leader of the Mussey Grade Road Alliance is against.

“We are absolutely gobsmacked that they think this would be possible here. The issue is putting industrial site on 2 preserves. That is a terrible precedent to set and it’s the wrong thing to do. It seems insane,” said Conklin.

The total cost of the project is $1.5 billion which tax payers will have to pay for, however, Kuzmich says taxpayers will benefit from this.

“We will receive revenue for using those assets and that revenue will offset water rates. This facility will be less expensive than relying on power from outside of the state renewable energy,” said Kuzmich.

There are alternate proposed sites for the upper reservoir. They are still in the early stages of this project that if approved, is expected to be completed in 2030.

 

San Vicente Pumped-Storage Electricity Project Moves Ahead to Environmental Review

By Chris Jennewein – February 2, 2022

The San Diego County Water Authority and city of San Diego have decided to move forward with environmental review of a pumped-storage electricity generating plant at the San Vicente Reservoir in East County.

The project entails creating a new, smaller reservoir above the giant city-owned lake, a tunnel between the two, and underground pump turbines. Water would be pumped to the upper reservoir when there is excess power on the grid, then drawn down to generate electricity when needed.

The facility could generate enough power to supply 135,000 households and alleviate temporary shortages that could cause blackouts.

Last week the water authority’s board approved a $4.6 million contract with AECOM Technical Services to perform environmental work for the project.

The board also opened negotiations with BHE Kiewit, a team that includes Berkshire Hathaway Energy, to design the facility.

“The San Vicente Energy Storage Facility project meets multiple goals for the San Diego region, including protection from blackouts and supporting climate-friendly energy sources,” said Gary Croucher, chair of the water authority’s board. “We’re excited to get moving.”

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria praised the project, citing the environmental benefit and potential to create jobs.

“On top of providing a reliable, clean source of energy and helping our city and the state of California meet our climate goals, this project has the potential to create well-paying local jobs,” he said. “I’m proud of the city’s partnership on this project and look forward to it moving though the regulatory approval process to fruition.”

Partners agree to move ahead on 500 MW San Vicente Energy Storage Facility

By hydroreviewcontentdirectors – 1.31.2022

Partners the City of San Diego and the San Diego County Water Authority will begin negotiations on a project development agreement with the BHE Kiewit Team to develop Phase 1 of the potential 500 MW San Vicente Energy Storage Facility Project.

The proposed project, which could generate enough energy for about 135,000 households, is subject to a full environmental review and regulatory approvals. If the authority and the city decide to proceed after completing environmental review, the San Vicente Energy Storage Facility would provide up to 500 MW of long-duration stored energy to help meet peak electrical demands throughout southern California and help meet California’s renewable energy goals.

“On top of providing a reliable, clean source of energy and helping our City and the state of California meet our climate goals, this project has the potential to create well-paying local jobs,” said San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria. “I’m proud of the City’s partnership on this project and look forward to it moving though the regulatory approval process to fruition.”

On Jan. 27, the Water Authority’s Board of Directors approved entering into negotiations with BHE Kiewit, along with a $4.6 million contract with AECOM Technical Services Inc. to perform environmental work for the project. The board also approved a $1.6 million amendment to a professional services contract with Black & Veatch Corp. to support project development agreement negotiations, provide technical expertise for a California Independent System Operator interconnection application, perform preliminary design and engineering reviews, and assist with preparing a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license application.

“The San Vicente Energy Storage Facility Project meets multiple goals for the San Diego region, including protection from blackouts and supporting climate-friendly energy sources,” said Water Authority Board Chair Gary Croucher. “We’re excited to get moving.”

Phase 1 work includes activities required to complete site investigations, design and engineering; support state and federal environmental reviews; support the acquisition of a CAISO interconnection agreement; support the acquisition of a FERC license; and collaborate with project partners to achieve commercialization.

Four proposals were received and evaluated for the project development contract. The Water Authority Board today also approved negotiating with Rye Development LLC if negotiations with the BHE Kiewit Team are not successful.

The San Vicente project would create a small upper reservoir above the existing, city-owned San Vicente Reservoir (which holds primarily imported water), along with a tunnel system and an underground powerhouse to connect the two reservoirs. The powerhouse would contain four reversible pump-turbines. San Vicente Reservoir is near major electricity transmission interconnection facilities, which would allow the project to play a central role in integrating solar and wind energy from across the southwest for use in San Diego County.

California sources nearly one-third of its power from renewables, mainly solar and wind. The target for renewable energy in California is 60% by 2030. Such a major shift to renewables will require new kinds of investments, markets and business practices. Electric grids need to be more flexible; new kinds of power supplies will help deliver energy flexibility when needed; and new pricing systems are needed to send clear signals to developers and financial markets that these projects need to move forward.

SDCWA is a public agency created in 1944 that delivers wholesale water supplies to 24 retail water providers, including cities, special districts and a military base.

San Diego looks for partner to build $1.5B San Vicente hydro energy project

The Water Authority and the city hope to have the energy storage facility operational by 2030.

By Rob Nikolewski – Sept. 21, 2021 3:08 PM PT

The project is on the drawing board. Now the San Diego County Water Authority and the city of San Diego are looking for a private partner to build and operate a pumped energy storage facility at the San Vicente Reservoir.

The Water Authority and the city have issued a request for proposal to find a suitable team to develop one of the state’s largest “pumped hydro” projects that would add megawattage and flexibility to California’s electric grid. Proposals from potential partners will remain open until Nov. 3.

“We are committed to finding a private partner who can help move this from concept to completion,” Gary Bosquet, the Water Authority’s director of engineering said in a statement.

The construction and development of the San Vicente Energy Storage Facility is estimated to come to $1.5 billion. Prospective bidders must provide details of the work required and lay out a financial plan.

The long-discussed project would see the construction of an upper reservoir of about 8,000 acre-feet of water to complement the already existing 247,000 acre-feet San Vicente Reservoir, nestled in the Cuyamaca Mountains near Lakeside.

Source: San Diego County Water Authority U-T

The two reservoirs would be connected by a tunnel system and an underground powerhouse containing four reversible pump turbines.

The project would pump water from the lower reservoir and send it to the upper reservoir. The stored water would later be released and the ensuing rush of water would generate electricity.

Pumped hydro projects have been part of the nation’s energy grid for more than 100 years but they have taken on a larger role in recent years as states and municipalities look to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By 2045, California looks to derive 100 percent of its electricity from carbon-free energy sources.

In July, the state budget earmarked $18 million for the facility to advance it through the often time-consuming initial design, environmental reviews and the federal licensing process.

The Water Authority and the city hope to have the project up and running by 2030. The facility will not interfere with existing water supplies, water quality, fisheries or recreational activities at San Vicente.

The project is designed to provide about 500 megawatts of long-duration energy storage — eight hours or 4,000 megawatt-hours per day, enough to power about 135,000 households.

Renewable energy, in particular solar, is so abundant during California’s daytime hours that it is commonly curtailed and sometimes the excess is sent to neighboring states. The plan for the San Vicente project is to take the electricity otherwise curtailed during the day and use it to pump the water to the upper reservoir.

Then during the 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. hours when solar production ebbs as the sun goes down and the state’s grid is often under duress, the water can be released to generate electricity when the system needs it most.

The California Public Utilities Commission last year called for adding about 1,000 megawatts of pumped storage to the state’s grid by 2026.

Water authority officials say adding the project to the grid will help lessen the effects of rotating outages — experienced statewide in August 2020 — and reduce the number of Flex Alerts, in which the state’s grid operator calls on consumers to voluntarily conserve energy during times of peak energy demand and tight energy supplies.

“The bigger message for everybody in San Diego and across the state is that this facility is providing grid reliability, which is what we need as we continue to meet the state’s fairly aggressive goals for carbon-free energy,” said Neena Kuzmich, the Water Authority’s deputy director of engineering. “We need this type of facility to be able to do that.”

The San Vicente Energy Storage Project will not affect water rates, Water Authority officials said, but the costs to build and operate the project will be integrated into electricity rates. How much electricity rates will be affected is not yet known because the finances from the prospective winning bid are still to be determined.

But Kuzmich said electricity rates will not be impacted until the project begins operating.

“If we don’t implement these types of energy storage facilities, it’s going to actually cost us more money in the long run to meet our clean energy goals because we’ll have to get power from outside the state during that 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. (time frame) when everybody’s coming home, using more energy and the renewables aren’t available to use,” Kuzmich said.

There’s already a pumped hydro storage facility in San Diego. Lake Hodges has a two-turbine pumphouse that sends water up 770 feet from the city-owned Hodges Reservoir to the Water Authority’s Olivenhain Reservoir more than a mile away, generating some 40 megawatts of power on demand. At 500 megawatts, the proposed San Vicente project would generate more than 12 times the electricity of the Lake Hodges facility when at full capacity.

According to the California Energy Commission, four pumped storage facilities help California’s grid during times of peak energy demand: Castaic Lake in Los Angeles County, with 1,331 megawatts of nameplate capacity (generation under ideal conditions); Helms in Fresno County, with 1,212 megawatts; Eastwood in Fresno County at 200 megawatts; and Lake Hodges.

Agencies seek private partner to develop 500-MW San Vicente energy storage project

By Elizabeth Ingram 9.20.2021

The San Diego County Water Authority has issued a request for proposals seeking a full-service private partner capable of developing the 500-MW San Vicente pumped energy storage project, planned jointly by the Water Authority and the City of San Diego.

The partner agencies aim to maximize the value of the existing San Vicente Reservoir for on-demand energy generation to support the state’s clean energy goals. They are seeking a full-service, multidisciplinary team capable of delivering and operating the project. The scope of work is divided into two phases: Phase 1 Preliminary Work and Phase 2 Implementation Work. The RFP details the scope of work required for development and deployment of the project, including a financial plan.

The San Vicente project would create a small upper reservoir above the San Vicente Reservoir in Lakeside, along with a tunnel system and an underground powerhouse to connect the two reservoirs. The powerhouse would contain four reversible pump-turbines.

“This is an exciting project that meets multiple goals for the San Diego region, including protection from blackouts and supporting climate-friendly energy sources,” said Gary Bousquet, director of engineering for the Water Authority. “We are committed to finding a private partner who can help move this from concept to completion.”

The San Vicente project would be a major asset to help avoid rolling blackouts through on-demand energy production while helping to meet state climate goals, according to a press release. It also could mitigate costs for water ratepayers across the San Diego region by generating additional revenue to help offset the cost of water purchases, storage and treatment. The city and the Water Authority are developing the project together, just like they did to raise the height of the city-owned San Vicente Dam 117 feet in the 2010s.

In July 2021, the San Vicente Energy Storage Facility received $18 million in the state budget, enough to advance it through initial design, environmental reviews and the federal licensing process. The Water Authority and the city are preparing to launch federal and state environmental reviews and seek a project license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Those components are expected to take at least four years, with construction completion forecast for 2030. The critical infrastructure project will create more than 1,000 construction-related jobs in addition to its other benefits.

“The San Vicente Energy Storage Facility is an important project for San Diego,” said Juan Guerreiro, executive assistant director of the City of San Diego’s Public Utilities Department. “It will improve our energy security, with a clean renewable power solution to help us efficiently manage the energy supply within our region.”

The San Vicente energy project would provide long-duration stored energy, which will assist in meeting peak electrical demand periods throughout southern California and help meet the goals of Senate Bill 100, which requires 60% renewable energy by 2030 and 100% zero-carbon energy resources statewide by 2045. The pumped storage energy project could store 4,000 MWh per day of energy, or provide 500 MW of capacity for eight hours.

California’s continuing shift to renewables will require new kinds of investments, markets and business practices. Electric grids need to be more flexible, new kinds of power supplies will help deliver energy flexibility when needed, and new pricing systems are needed to send clear signals to developers and financial markets that these projects need to move forward. Pumped energy storage projects are a major piece of the solution.

San Vicente Reservoir is near major electricity transmission interconnection facilities, which would allow the project to play a central role in integrating solar and wind energy from across the Southwest for use in San Diego County. The San Vicente project is a closed-loop system that mainly holds imported water and is not reliant on runoff that can fluctuate significantly from year to year and hamper power production.