Doosan Enerbility Aims to Dominate the Domestic Pumped Hydro Storage Market

Doosan Enerbility announced on December 3rd that it is venturing into the Korean domestic pumped-hydro storage market.

According to the draft plan of the Korean government’s 11th Basic Plan for Long-Term Electricity Supply and Demand, to ensure a stable grid operation during this time of renewable energy expansion, a 21.5GW long-duration energy storage system(ESS) will be needed by 2038. Construction of pumped-storage plants, the leading form of ESS, is expected to total an installed capacity of 5.7GW (total 9 units) in the future. As the first project, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) will be pursuing the construction of a pumped storage plant with a generation capacity of 500MW in the region of Yeongdong, Chungbuk Province, marking KHNP’s first such attempt in 13 years. As numerous new build projects of pumped-storage plants are planned in regions such as Hongcheon, Pocheon and Hapcheon as well, new orders amounting to trillions of Korean won is forecast to come in for the plant components.

Pumped-storage hydropower is a form of energy storage that can be used to balance out the intermittency and variability of renewable energy. A pumped-storage plant can use the low-cost electricity offered during the late hours when power demand is low or have the surplus electricity generated during the day from solar power saved up for later use when demand is higher. The water is released from the upper reservoir to lower-level reservoir to generate electricity. Such pumped-storage plants have the advantages of enabling stable energy storage and utilization, a long lifetime and low risk of fire outbreaks. According to the International Energy Agency(IEA), pumped-storage systems account for as much as 66.5% of the energy storage systems worldwide.

”In light of the renewable energy expansion, pumped-storage hydropower is the most optimal solution for securing power grid stability,” said Jongdoo Kim, CEO of Doosan Enerbility’s Nuclear Business Group. “We will do our best to provide carbon-free energy solutions by supplying the main components for gas turbines which are convertible to hydrogen turbines, hydroelectric power plants and pumped-storage plants, not to mention nuclear power plants.”

In 2019, Doosan Enerbility had signed an MOU on technical and business cooperation with the Austria-based Andritz, the leading global supplier of hydroelectric power and pumped-storage plant components, thereby laying the groundwork for achieving technological self-reliance for the engineering of hydropower and pumped-storage plant components. Furthermore, Doosan is currently working with KHNP on the development of a 30MW hydro generator for hydroelectric power plants as part of the efforts to expand the hydropower business in both the domestic and global markets.

▲View of Doosan Enerbility headquarters in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province.