Abstract
Decarbonizing the economy to fulfill the Paris Agreement goals requires the development of vast amounts of renewable power generation. The feasible integration of wind and solar photovoltaic power generation in the power system requires resources to address their intermediacy. Three complementary resources must be used: storage, interconnections, and demand management. The Spanish Integrated Plan on Energy and Climate estimates 18 GW of storage in 2030 [1]. Despite the developments in battery energy storage systems, their economic feasibility is not assured. In contrast, several hydro-pumped storage projects (greenfield and brownfield [2]) are currently being considered in Spain.The competitiveness of hydro-pumped storage projects is greatly affected by the turbine and pump efficiency under a wide range of heads. It may be at risk if a constant speed drive is considered. An alternative to a constant-speed drive is a variable-speed one [3].This contribution will describe an advanced hydro generation system based on variable speed drive. The role of such a system in a complex river system will be detailed. The hydraulic machine-generator set controls in interconnected system and island modes will be provided [4]. Mathematical models of such control systems will be described.
