New energy storage facility for Bavaria
Uniper brings old pumped storage power plant back to the grid
20.06.2024, 18:24
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In 2011, the Happurg pumped storage power plant had to be shut down as a precautionary measure. After a thorough investigation, operator Uniper can now put it back into operation. The energy supplier speaks of a “trump card of the energy transition”.
The energy supplier Uniper is putting the Happurg pumped storage power plant east of Nuremberg back into operation for around 250 million euros. “The company is thus making a substantial contribution to the energy transition and continuing its entrepreneurial course of transformation to more renewable power generation,” writes Uniper in a statement. “The pumped storage power plant stores energy and thus contributes to greater security of the electricity supply in southern Germany.”
According to Uniper, Happurg is the largest pumped storage power plant in Bavaria. The upper reservoir has a volume of 1.8 million cubic meters and can store water with enough energy to generate around 850 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity. The head from the upper reservoir to the lower reservoir is 209 meters.
Since the power plant was shut down, the upper reservoir on the Deckersberg has been dry. The lower reservoir of the power plant system is Lake Happurger.
“Trump card of the energy transition”
After four years of construction, the power plant went online in 1964. In 2011, it was shut down as a precautionary measure for safety reasons due to localized damage to the bottom of the upper reservoir. Since then, according to Uniper, the subsoil has been investigated and geotechnically assessed, and various approaches to remediation have been examined. Most recently, a feasibility study developed and refined a technical concept that enables economic restart.
“The responsible approval authority, the Nuremberg District Office, has given this concept a positive review as part of a planning approval procedure,” Uniper writes. “As part of the overall project, the plant technology in the powerhouse will also be repaired.” Pumped storage power plants can be started up within seconds or switched from generating electricity to storing electricity. “With these properties, they are trump cards for the energy transition, which is primarily about integrating and balancing the uncontrollable and fluctuating generation of wind power and PV systems,” Uniper continues.