Putting a price tag on pumped storage

Future limits on power plant carbon dioxide emissions, and the addition of a large amount of variable renewables, are major policy and market changes that can affect the value of hydropower. Either of these could shift economic break points in favor of hydropower options, including the addition of pumped storage Wind power, in particular, by its large scale and general availability at night, introduces system-balancing challenges that could make many hydropower assets more valuable. EPRI says that the interest and participation of the hydro industry in this work was significant and included eight major US utilities with existing hydropower assets, federal labs, consultants, and hydropower equipment manufacturers. The aim is to provide a comprehensive study of the technical and market operations, economics, and value of conventional hydro and pumped storage plants for power system operation.