Suitable Site Selection for Pumped Hydro and Compressed Air Energy Storage in South Australia using Arcmap Software

This paper discusses the use of Arcmap software to identify suitable sites for pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) and compressed air energy storage (CAES) in Southern Australia. The benefits of GIS technology are highlighted, and potential sites for PHES and CAES are identified based on various characteristics. The paper also discusses the differences between PHES and CAES and their respective advantages. Keywords: PHES, CAES, GIS

To find suitable site for pump hydro energy storage and compressed air
energy storage in South Australia using Arcmap software
Abstract:
Storage of energy has became a noteworthy defy in the urban areas all over the world. The
purpose of storing energy sufficiently fulfills the need during the peak hours. In this paper we
have dealt regarding pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) as well as compressed air energy
storage (CAES) in southern Australia. The sites and the geological location for the energy
storage are determined by Geographical Information Systems using Arcmap software. The
benefits of the Geographical Information Systems are numerous. This technology could reduce
the cost thereby increases the efficiency. This provides a good decision making with the
improved communication and better management. The record of the information could be saved
and stored which could be used later for further references.
Keywords: pumped hydro energy storage (PHES), compressed air energy storage (CAES),
Geographical Information Systems
Introduction:
The Geographical Information System (GIS) is computer based software that provides the
geographical information with the descriptive information. This is easiest way in finding the
location of a place that includes lakes, cities, road etc., (Berebero, 2012) rather than finding it in
a paper map. In an ordinary paper map we have to spread the sheet in a location and find out the
places which could be represented in the form on dots (cities), black lines (roads), triangle
(mountain) etc. This process seems to be difficult when compared to the GIS. In GIS,
information could be stored in the form of digitalized format. With the help of GIS we could be
able to find the location and in fact we could determine the exact square mile of the location.
These are stored as a layer of information and each layer represents a particular theme or feature
of the map. If one theme represents the roads then the other one represents the lakes and so on.
With the help of GIS we could able to determine the situation of the location, evaluate the
situation and act according to that. If helps us in achieving certain basic desire about our current
location scenario by collecting the information from the government and various sources in the
custom map. The information regarding our planet could be determined by various remote
sensing satellites and earthbound sensors. GIS could be widely used in many fields. This could
be used by the business analyst, city planners, environmental planners and various other planners
who could reshape the existing pattern (Gopal, Mohanraj, Chandramohan, Chandrasekar, 2013).
This could be in the military that makes them to take a better decision regarding placing their
troops.
This chapter deals with the identification of site that is suitable for hydro and compressed air
storage in the Southern Australia. There are many possible and lurking sites for pumped hydro

energy storage (PHES) in Australia. In Southern Australia, approximately 195 sites have been
found for the storage of energy. The energy storage was determined to be approximately 500
GWh with the minimum head of about 300 m (Ma, Yang, Lu, and Peng, 2014). To determine
100% of renewable electricity system 450 GWh of PHES storage could be required. Developers
meet the necessary expenses to choose a particular site as the count of about 20 sites would be
essential to sustain a 100% renewable electricity grid. This is an estimation done in the year of
2017.
PHES:
Pumped hydro energy storage (PHES), is a technology used to store the energy from the water
pumped from the lower reservoir to the secondary one i.e., higher reservoir (Anteneh, 2007). The
water is passed to the turbine in the higher reservoir and makes the turbine to rotate, which leads
to the production of electricity from the stores potential energy. The water returning from the
turbine flows into the lower reservoir thus making a renewable source. This technology has been
adapted in the year 1890 and in Australia this came to use at the year of 1973. Over past decades
this technology balances the electricity demand in grids, which utilize constantly-loaded nuclear
or else coal-fired electricity generation (Campana, Li and Yan, 2013). In the present scenario,
PHES maintains the low and high electricity requirements when compared to the other
renewable resources such as solar photovoltaic cells and wind turbine. This provides an excellent
voltage support with the grid frequency regulation. This rapidly evolving technology could be
used in the located at the fringes of inhibited electricity grid. The improvement of PHES could
find a beneficial improvement in the economical status in Australia. However, the previously
developed PHES beyond the capability in Australia has not acknowledged any sufficient
consideration since there is a short of economic need and there is rare deployment of PHES sites.
Pumped hydroelectricity energy storage has found its place in the form of most significant way
of storing energy across the world. The below figure 1 demonstrate that 127 GWh of PHES
established creates about 99 per cent of electrical energy storage potential (Dr. Iqbal, 2011).
From this it is determined that PHES exceeds the technology that utilizes wind, chemical
batteries or flywheels.

Figure 1: Electrical energy storage capacity world-wide
As said earlier water is taken from the lower to the higher reservoir that could be further used for
the potential purposes. These reservoirs could be either natural one such as lakes, rivers etc, or
completely man-made construction that includes dams and other global water storage techniques.
The technology employed in PHES does not allow the wastage of water except the leakage that
could be caused due to the pipe holes, connecting channels and tunnels (Akinyele, & Rayudu,
2014). Hence it does not require the need of makeup water (water that is necessarily supplied for
the compensating the evaporation, leakage etc.). However, frequently PHES should be
incorporated with a conservative hydroelectric facility, which has an incessant or recurrent water
supply (for instance, say streams or rivers). The simplified diagram that shows the functionality
of the PHES is described in the figure given below

Figure 2: simplified view of flow of water in PHES
PHES uses the similar technology as used by the traditional potential system but the major
difference is that this uses reversible turbines or divided additional pumps. The design
parameters includes,
 Capacity of generation of electricity that is also known as turbine capacity
 Volume of the reservoir
 The head variation between the lower and the secondary reservoir
 Amount of storage of energy that is derived from the volume and the head difference
 Variation of time that is determined by the capacity and the amount of stored energy
CAES:
According to Australia, the need for the energy storage equipments is very high and the
implementation of the systems has also been increased. Compressed air energy storage (CAES)
has been implemented in Toronto, a project undertaken by Terramin Australia Angas Zinc Mine
in South Australia. Conventional compressed air energy storage involves three different types of
underground cavities. They are excavated salt domes since the salt has the property to seal itself
while it is introduced with some pressure, cavities formed during the evolution of rocks that
could be either natural or excavated and aquifers. Since the natural location that is available is
limited, the production of sites could be expensive and the several test and evaluation should be
done for the firmness of any grotto to endure cycling temperature and pressure.
According to Hydrostar, the implementation of this project does not look like the conventional
compressed air equipment that burns up the saturated natural gases with the heat for the
production of electricity. This system does not require any underground storage cabin that makes
the site selection at a flexible extend. In this process the heat is taken from the compressed

process and it is stored in the thermal management system (Barton and Infield, 2004). An
adiabatic process is maintained that takes the heat back and then injected into the turbine, which
does not require any natural gases. They also use water that is stored underground in the bedrock
of about 300 m at the lower reservoir and this water is taken to the purposely built upper
reservoir, in order to compensate with the air. When the air is compressed into the cavity then
water is displaced in the upper reservoir. This volume of the water pushes the air to the turbine
surface thus generating electricity (Belles, Mays, Blevins, Hadley, Harrison, Jochem, et al,
2012). This is a more flexible system that generates a large amount of electricity and this could
be built at the required areas where it is necessary.
The project head of this CAES says that the particular system is similar to pumped hydro electric
system but it does not require more amount of water, which is used in PHES. CAES has a longer
life duration that requires a proper management of rotating equipment. The cost is also very low
when compared to the 50 and 100 MW batteries. Batteries could be used in the high distribution
systems for an immediate responses but the life-time and the duration is not guaranteed. This
system holds a place in the Australian energy Market (Fitzgerald, Lacal, Mckeogh & Leahy,
2012). The system also guarantees for the long term provision of the asset, which requires a
careful consideration of building these equipments. Conventional system that uses compressed
air energy storage is shown in the diagram given below
Figure 3: Conventional compressed air energy storage system

Methodology, Data Integration, and Site Selection
Potential sites of PHES at South Australia:
Thousands of PHES sites could be located at the location of Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania.
In southern Australia numerous sites are concentrated at the hills of Port Pirie and port Augusta.
There are about 8578 conceivable sites found with the whole energy storage capacity of about
29062 GWh that is 200 times more to contribute to the 100 percent renewable electricity system
in the region. New South Wales PHES has a head difference of above 400 m. The Araluen
Valley has an outstanding head height of about 600 m. The area of Glen Innes has become a hub
for the renewable energy storage that has many energy plants, some of them had been
constructed and others are under construction that includes the Sapphire (which is under the
planning stage) and White Rock Wind Farms, and the White Rock Solar Farm. ACT for the
implementation of PHS has a cotter dam nearby that offers the head height of about 100 m,
which could be used as a lower reservoir. But this couldn’t be efficiently used, which in turn
utilizes Naas that has a head of about 300m (Carnegie, Gotham, Nderitu and Preckel, 2013). The
other potential site could be Corin forest but due to several consequences this is not under usage.
Cotter dam could be effectively utilized by connecting it with Bendora that offers the head of
about 240m. Bendora connection requires a 14 km long tunnel/pipe, which holds up the volume
of about 12 Gigalitres (GL). In judgment, the pipe/tunnel connection done between Tantangara
and Talbingo reservoirs would be 30 kms long that hold up the water level to 25 GL at the head
of about 650 m. This is very efficient when compared to the Bendora connection that could offer
only 250 m head height. Corin and Tantangara reservoirs could also be connected that
necessitates 25 km long tunnel with the head height of 250 m. But this tunnel on the comparison
is not very smart. The location of the Cotter dam is shown in the figure given below

Figure 4: Geographical location of the Cotter dam with the head of about 100m
Necessities:
This paper deals with the potential sites that could be held for constructing the PHES (Cavallo,
2007). The place for this estimation should have a proper ambience for the location of upper
reservoir. When this is estimated then the lower reservoir with the pipe/tunnel connection could
also be estimated (Harestad, 2011). Cost should be the basic consideration for the construction of
these sites. Potential sites could be determined based on the following characteristics:
1. The site should hold the facility in holding the large head of about 600 m. when the head
is doubled then the energy and the power produced could increase but this will not
increase up the cost.
2. The dam wall should be constructed with the slope at the back. This could take away the
flow of large amount of water.
3. Volume of water should be held maximum. There is an estimation that storing 1 GL of
water could produce potential energy of about 1 GWh that has a head of approximately
400 m.
4. Volume of rock should be considered with the huge quantity of water for the dams. This
is estimated with the rock/water ratio. This estimated value should be higher than 10 that
enhance the efficiency.

5. The connection between the upper and the lower reservoir should be done with the small
steeps, which could minimize the length of the tunnel thereby decreases, the cost.
6. Least disagreement with native, ambience, social, heritage, urban, agricultural and land
management aspects should be maintained
7. There should be necessary geological characteristics for the site to be located
8. Provide necessary entrance to the water and the roads with the supply lines all should be
held near.
Location:
Figure 5: Potential PHES site found around Queensland

Figure 6: PHES sites at the southern Australia
Figure 7: The upper reservoir view of Port Augusta found in the southern Australia

Figure 8: The upper reservoir head of about 600 m at Araluen, Canberra District.
Discussion:
Pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) requires certain amount of energy to take the water
upstream for the rotation of turbine. This develops a loss of energy up to a level of 20%. A
research has been done for the estimation of total energy production by the PHES across the
world. This says that about 97% of the energy is produced by the PHES that contributes 159
GWh of energy. Moreover PHES serves the best inertial storage energy with the help of the high
rotation of the turbine that severs in stabilizing the system against the load disturbances.
Moreover, the response time is very fast in PHES and restoration of malformed grid, which is
known as black start capacity is also good.
Wivenhoe, Kangaroo Valley and Tumut are certain river based PHES found in the Australia. At
hill stations, off-river is said to be more conventional that are located far from on-river site that
includes rivers and national parks. The location involves raising the head till 900 meters. These
off-river sites are said to be closed systems where the joining should be done with the pipe or
tunnel that connects the pump and turbine (Satkin, Noorollahi, Abbaspour, & Yousefi, 2014).
This promotes an efficiency of about 80% where 10% of energy could be lost between cycling of
water from the upper and lower reservoir. The remaining 10% is lost during the potential
generation cycle. The off-river has a short environmental impact since it could consume only a
little amount of water due to the evaporation and could be increased through the rainfall.

This could promote maximum power generation. The significance of the off-river sites are as
follows:
 Normally it is required to use 1000 hectare land for the river based reservoir. But the off-
river require only less that 100 hectare of land which is sufficiently very low reservoir.
 Sufficient catchment is done to control the flood since the reservoir is placed away from
the water resources. This minimizes the environmental impacts since the flow of the river
valley is not troubled.
 The size of the head is said to be 3-5 times larger since upper reservoir should be placed
in the peak of the mountain rather than placing it in the valley. Through the increased
head there is an increase in the power production.
Comparison of PHES and CAES:
In the present scenario, usage of batteries tends to store energy for the longer duration that could
vary between few hours. The batteries such as electric vehicle batteries and low temperature
thermal energy storage that uses heat pumps for heating and cooling of water has been popularly
used across the world. Rather than the above mentioned battery the remaining batteries are in the
verge of development. These are very expensive in cost. Conventional Compressed air energy
storage (CAES) requires maximum storage cavern underground, in order to store the compressed
air at very high pressure. This could occupy several hectares of land in the geographic location.
Hydrogen storage needs heavy round trip loss through the electrolysis of water. Other
technologies for the storage of energy involves the use of super conductors, super capacitors and
flywheels, which are still under the process of development and this is not sufficient to store
heavy amount of energy (GWh).
The National Electricity Market (NEM) and grid covers the entire region of southern Australia.
They have estimated that the pipe or the tunnel that joins the reservoir should be shorter and
steeper for the given head. The ratio of the slope was estimated to be 1:15 for minimizing the
cost. Several potential sites are incompatible due to their poor geology. These sites are
Turkey nest: The earth wall is constructed by scooping the rocks which is about 20 m high and
the upper reservoir is constructed at the top of a flat hill.
Head of gully: This has an advantage over Turkey nest since the earth wall is positioned across a
small gully. This is close to the peak of a mountain to confiscate water.
Old mine sites: The lower reservoir and the upper reservoir are formed from the mining pit. This
could also be a turkey nest reservoir, which is near the edge of pit found at (Genex Power, 2016).

Conclusion:
The standard equipments that make a hydro electric energy systems involves pipes, pumps,
turbines, generators, substations and power lines. From our study we have discussed potential
site within southern Australia. From the above result it could be determined that there are several
possible sites for the PHES when compared to the CAES. The efficiency of PHES is said to be
very high when compared with other conventional energy storage system.
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