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Pumped Hydroelectricity Storage and

Security of Supply in the German, South
African and El Hierro Electricity Grids. A
Comparative Review.
Barge Romane Boucquey Louis Juan Miguel Garcia Kilian

December 15, 2023

Figure 1: South African Ingula PHS scheme [1]

Contents
1 Introduction 1

2 Method 2

3 Materials 2
3.1 Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.2 South Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.3 El Hierro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

4 Results 8
4.1 The German Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.1.1 PHS Charge and Discharge Compared with Renewable Energies Production 8
4.1.2 Changing Electricity Price . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.3 Planed Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2 The South African Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2.1 Interaction with Intermittent Renewable Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2.2 Interaction with the Fluctuating Demand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.2.3 Interaction with Load Sheddings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.3 The El Hierro Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.3.1 Technical Specifications of the Wind-Hydro Power Plant . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.3.2 Intervention of PHS in Daily Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.3.3 Development Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

5 Discussions 14

6 Conclusion 16
1. Introduction
Pump Hydroelectricity Storage also called PHS has a long history and represents today the main
part of the energy storage worldwide with around 165 GW of installed capacity all around the
world [2]. In the 1890s first ideas of using PHS came along in Switzerland where the first PHS was
built in 1907. Today, there are a lot of different PHS in the world with different sizes and ways
of integration in the electricity grid. These recent years, this technology has even been object of
new interest because of its possible integration with renewable energies.
The technology of using Hydropower to gener-
ate mechanical energy is a few thousand years
old. A hydropower plant needs an elevated
water reservoir which is stored behind the dam.
The resulting water pressure and water flow
can be used to turn a turbine or back in the
days a waterwheel. [3].
Figure 2 shows the basic function of a PHS
where an upper and lower reservoir is needed.
As higher the water level difference between
these reservoirs, the higher the power output
can be. The difference to a hydropower plant is
that the PHS can also pump water back up to
the upper reservoir to store the water as poten-
tial energy, which then can be released again
through the turbine to change the potential Figure 2: The function of a PHS in generating
energy into electrical energy. as well as in pumping mode (taken from [4]).

PHS is one of the biggest energy storage’s used to support the electricity grid when electricity is
needed. The amount of energy stored depends on the volumes of the reservoirs but the average
of energy stored is quite hight compared to other storage systems. PHS have also a long lifetime
between 60 and 100 years. One of the biggest obstacles to the development of PHS is the initial
cost and the long time of construction. PHS require also a specific topography with a hilly terrain
to improve efficiency. [5]

The present study aims to compare three different case studies in Germany, South Africa and El
Hierro, which is an Island in the Canary Islands (Spain). This paper will focus particularly on the
security of supply defined as the availability of energy at all times in various forms, in sufficient
quantities, and at reasonable and/or affordable prices [6] and looks at the following comparative
review:
Pumped Hydroelectricity Storage and Security of Supply in the German, South
African and El Hierro Electricity Grids
To answer this question, this paper gives first an overview of the current electricity grid in the three
countries, which includes the installed production capacity, electrical consumption per capita,
Wind/PV installed capacity and max import capacity from neighboring countries.
Germany
Germany is known for its many different kinds of electricity production, which includes renewable
energies with a grid share of 50 % and a close connection with its neighboring countries, where
Germany can buy and sell electricity. Due to the geographical position of Germany in central
Europe, 30 different PHS can support the constantly changing electricity demand as well as the
production from renewable energies [7].
South Africa

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South Africa is one of the most developed sub-Saharan countries in terms of electricity even if a
non-negligible part of the population has still no access to it. With the increasing age of current
facilities, the country faces huge problems in the electricity production supply, especially during
peak hours. South Africa operates four PHS units which helps the grid operator to match national
production and demand in the tough hours but it is sometimes not enough.
El Hierro
El Hierro is a Canary Island with a small and isolated grid. The island generated electricity with
a Diesel power plant for many years before a new combined plant with a wind farm and a PHS
was launched in 2014 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Since this date, electricity has been
produced jointly by the new plant and the diesel plant.

The result part looks at the actual influence of the PHS in the grid. To support the text structure,
different figures are used, which display the usage of PHS compared to the total load and the
other energy sources in the electricity grid. A research focus on the combination of PHS and
renewable energies like wind and PV is taken.
.

2. Method
This paper aims to better understand the services a PHS facility provides to its electricity grid.
The focus is on how this technology helps to secure the grid and match production and demand.
To answer this main research question, multiple sub-questions were handled:
• When is the PHS charged?
• When is the PHS discharged?
• How is the electricity price affected by PHS?
The operation strategies and interaction of the PHS with the grid can be deducted from these.
The temporal dependence of the PHS operation on production capacities and demand is initially
analyzed for each studied grid separately and then compared and further discussed together.
The material for this study is a literature review of the German, South-African, and El Hierro
electricity grid context and the relevant pieces of information concerning the PHS installations
integrated in. Study result figures and discussion rely on the exploitation of the three complete
national grid data. The various data and graphs of daily electricity production have been analysed
to identify the main trends on the usage of PHS. Only the formatting of the data provided
by official operators has been changed and, unless otherwise stated, no deductions based on
calculation assumptions have been made.
For Germany, the SMARD website is used which represents all data in the German electricity
grid from production over installed power generating facilities and price changes to the national
electricity demand [7]. For South Africa, hourly-based grid data is taken from the National grid
distributor and operator Eskom database [8]. For El Hierro, the operational data used in the
report are extracted from the website of Gorona del Viento for the years 2018 to 2023 [9].

3. Materials
This chapter includes the literature review as mentioned in the Method, for the three countries.

3.1. Germany
The German electricity grid went through significant changes within the last few years. Not only
does the total electricity demand of 482,6 TWh in 2022 have an influence, also a big change is
the rising amount of renewable energies in the electricity mix plays an important role. In 2011
the portion of renewable energies in the grid was 23 % while it was 50 % in 2022. Coal had with
33 % the biggest portion, followed by Wind (25 %) and PV (12 %). Furthermore, the portion of
nuclear energy was 7 % in 2022, before the last nuclear power stations were disconnected from the

2
electricity grid at the beginning of 2023 due to political regulations [10]. However, the installed
capacity is higher than the actual production in Germany for this month, 232,761 MW. The
installed capacity for wind and solar is 128,785 MWp, 55 % of the total installed capacity.
Not only does the electrical production in Germany change constantly, but the electricity demand
changes with a typical peak in the evening (max. 80 GW) and a low in the night (min. 40 GW)
which brings the max peak-base load to 40 GW in Germany [11].

Due to Germany’s geographic location

in central Europe, Germany has the op-
portunity to trade electricity with its
land and sea neighbors. Many transi-
tion lines are built which connect all
European countries to one electricity
grid. Figure 3 shows that Germany
exported more electricity to its neigh-
boring countries than it imported. The
highest imported amount of electricity
in 2022 happened on 12.06.2022 at 8
pm and was 11,089 MW.
Figure 3: Imported and exported electricity in Germany
from 1990 till 2021 (taken from [12]).
PHS has a high influence in the German electricity grid, which has significantly different charac-
teristics than the PHS influence in South Africa as well as El Hierro.
There are 30 PHS in Germany with a total maximum power of 6,700 MW. Additionally, there are
1,800 MW in Austria and 1,100 MW in Luxenburg installed, which are connected to the German
electricity grid. This results in 9,600 MW net output which is available to Germany [13].
The newest PHS was built in 2004 in Goldisthal and has a power output of 1,060 MW over four
units. This PHS is also one of the biggest PHS in Europe in terms of volume, maximum power
output and with a height difference between the two water reservoirs of 302 m [14].
After giving some basic information about PHS in Germany, the next part looks at the electricity
production in Germany and especially on the influence of PHS in the German electricity grid.
The following figures 4, 5 and dates are as written in the Methode chapter from the SMARD
website.

Figure 4: Electricity production and demand in Germany for 4 days in September 2023.

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 Figure 5: SMARD legend of the different electricity production types for figure 4, 13 and 14.

Figure 4 shows the electricity production in Germany and the electricity need (red line) for a
week in September 2023. Marine blue is the PHS. It is clearly visible that the peak output for
pump storage is in the morning and evening, outside of the PV production (yellow).
Green is biomass, light blue is water power, dark blue is wind power, brown and black is coal and
light grey is gas.
According to this graph, the electricity demand is mostly higher than the electricity production
in Germany. Especially in the evening hours after the energy from the PV drops. Using the data
from SMARD as a reference the main time when the hydropower plants are running on full load
is in the evening hours between 6 and 8 pm when they can make up to 14 % of the electricity
production. The energy received from the PHS is in these hours not enough to meet the national
demand and electricity has to be imported from neighboring countries.

3.2. South Africa

The South African grid, mainly furnished with coal is concerned by important issues in the secu-
rity of supply.

Figure 6: Number of people with and with-

Figure 7: Electricity production by source,
out electricity access, South Africa (taken from
South Africa (taken from [16]).
[15]).
A piece of information to get into the South African context is displayed in Figure 6. Close to
9 million people (15% of the population) have currently no access to electricity. The electricity
that supplies 82 % of the national citizens is produced for the most part (up to 85 % - see Fig. 7)
with coal-fired power stations. This source with the support of nuclear constitutes the base load
production and is hardly maneuverable. Growing renewable energy sources as well as peaking
power stations are completing the grid. More than half of the peak installed power is assured by
hydroelectricity generators (mainly pumped hydroelectricity storage: 2,912 MW) and the rest by
oil generators.
The PHS units only represent about 1 % of overall annual energy production but can reach a
maximum share of 13 % in the grid.

4
Currently, it’s the state-owned enterprise Eskom that produces approximately 95 % of the coun-
try’s production.[17] With the purchase of imports as well as municipal and independent power
producers (IPPs), Eskom takes care of transmission and distribution to customers and fixes the
price. Soon, the company plans to liberalize the electricity production market.

The South African production plants have had to handle an average demand of 23,156 MW in
the year 2022. In addition, production has had to face huge load changes on the same unique
day and can significantly change depending on the season as depicted in Figure 8. The maximum
load reached 31,756 MW in early February peak hour while the minimum load was 15,624 MW
in a late December night.

Figure 8: Two different weekly demand behaviors in 2022.

Even with growing private-owned production units, Eskom faces huge difficulties in supplying the
demand. With outdated power units, critical maintenance and unplanned losses, Eskom must
frequently use its loadshedding tool to avoid grid total blackout. This manual load reduction is
affecting directly entire regions which are disconnected one after another for 2 to 4 hours. Their
frequency depends on the least power needed to stabilize the grid.

Since their commission, the role of storage in the electricity system has already changed, to being
more flexible and problem-oriented, and to help manage the instability of old generators and the
variability of new intermittent sources.[18]

Table 1 details the relevant data about the four PHS in use. The three biggest units are operated
by Eskom. At a municipal level, the City of Cape Town is the only city in South Africa that
owns and operates a pumped hydro scheme: Steenbras [19]. Originally intended for use in peak
load reduction, the use of the Steenbras dams has also allowed Cape Town to regularly protect
customers from load shedding and to minimize the cost of buying power from State-owned utility
Eskom during peak tariff periods[18].

Installed Storage Gen

Pump- Date
Power plant capacity capacity hours Operator
generators commissioned
(MW) (MWh) (h)
Ingula 1,332 21,000 15.8 4 x 333MW 2017 Eskom
Drakensberg 1,000 27,600 27.6 4 x 250MW 1981 Eskom
Palmiet 400 11,200 28 2 x 200MW 1988 Eskom
City of
Steenbras 180 1700 9.4 4 x 45MW 1979
Cape Town
Total: 2,912 61,500

Table 1: South African PHS units in use

The problem here is that under a situation of prolonged load shedding for 24 hours a day, there

5
is no excess supply. This means charging the storage from Eskom supply under continuous load
shedding increases demand from Eskom and puts additional strain on the national power system.
Charging this pumped hydro during extended load shedding from non-Eskom primary energy
supply, such as wind or solar IPPs, would benefit the entire national power system. The City of
Cape Town has been pushing to be able to procure electricity from non-Eskom sources since 2015
[20].

3.3. El Hierro
The island El Hierro is part of the Spanish Canary Island Archipelago. It is the smallest and
westernmost Canary Island with a surface of 278km² and a population of 11,000 inhabitants. The
island is around 400 km from the African coast and it is an isolated system meaning that it is not
connected with any national or regional grid. The small size of the island makes it complicated
to install stream electricity generators therefore the best way to supply reliable electricity was to
use diesel power generators. Thus, the island has been strongly dependent on importations of oil
for many years, making the cost of electricity generation quite expensive.
As an isolated system, the island doesn’t
import or export electricity and the elec-
tricity production can be equated with the
electricity demand. The domestic loads and
the distribution of water (including desali-
nation) are the major contributors to the
island’s electricity demand and the annual
energy demand is around 45 GWh per year.
In 2022 it was 46.9 GWh and we can see in
figure 9 that it is quite variable during the
year principally due to the tourist frequen-
tation. The monthly average generation is
3,900 MWh in 2022 with a swing of 40 % be-
tween the lowest demand in December and
the highest in August. This variability com- Figure 9: Monthly energy generation in El Hi-
bined with the isolation of the grid is a big erro in 2022.
challenge for the island to ensure the secu-
rity of supply.
Figures 10 and 11 show the hourly generation in a day in August and December respectively. For
both days, the difference between the peak load and the minimum load is around 3 MW and we
identify very logically off-peak hours in the night from 12 to 6 am and peak hours in the morning
between 7 am to 10 am, in the afternoon between 1 pm to 3 pm and finally in the evening from
7 pm to 11 pm.

Figure 10: Hourly energy generation in El Hi- Figure 11: Hourly energy generation in El Hi-
erro, 10.08.2022 erro, 16.12.2022

6
Until 2014, the electricity supply was ensured by nine diesel units located at the site "Llanos
Blancos" with a total capacity of 13.4 MW. The annual electricity production was around 45
GWh which corresponds to a consumption of diesel of 40,000 barrels and 18,700 tonnes of CO2
emitted.
The island enjoys excellent exposure to the wind thanks to a peculiar landscape of steep hillsides
and a higher altitude point at 1,500m above the level of the sea [21]. The annual average wind
speed is between 7.24 and 8.42 m/s according to data from 2017. This good framework lead the
local government of the island and the main government of Spain to approve a Sustainability plan
and start thinking about a project to remove the island’s reliance on fossil energy in 1997. The
company "Gorona del Viento", formed by the Island Regional Government, the local electricity
company "Endesa" and the Canary Government was created in 2004 to conduct the project. For
almost ten years, they designed and built a plant composed of a wind farm combined with a
closed-loop pump hydro storage.

Figure 12: Electricity production in El Hierro for the years from 2014 to 2022.

Figure 12, illustrates the proportion of the island energy needs provided by the diesel power plant
"Llanos Blancos" and the wind-hydro plant "Gorona del Viento" since this last one was commis-
sioned, in 2014. After a series of tests and start-ups, the Gorona del Viento plant is considered
to be in continuous operation since 2016 with a production that provides around 50 percent of
the island’s energy needs (best production in 2018). The diesel plant at "Los llanos Blancos" is
still in operation to cover the other needs. Ultimately, the diesel plant should only operate in
emergency situations. Those proportions are quite variable because of the volatility of wind.

The wind power plant is made with five 2.3 MW turbines (11.5 MW total power). This plant
is connected to a PHS with an upper reservoir of 380,000 m³ at 715 m and a lower reservoir of
150,000m³ at 54 m.
During the generation mode, the PSH is producing electricity with four 2.83 MW Pelton turbines
(11.3 MW in total). The flow rate is 2 m³/s.

7
During the pumping mode, the upper basin is filled with two 1.500 MW pumps and six 500 kW
pumps (total pumped capacity of 6 MW).

Three main actors are involved in the management of the electricity supply in El Hierro, Endesa
the local company which furnishes electricity to the consumers, Gorona del Viento which manages
the wind-hydro pump storage and Red Eléctrica de España (REE) Spain’s grid operator. The
importance of ensuring supply is even higher in El Hierro than in continental areas because of the
impossibility to buy electricity from other areas. This combined with the seasonal tourist demand
imply price fluctuations and additional costs in comparison to mainland Spain. Nevertheless, El
Hierro follow a regulated remuneration model and in accordance with Spanish Act 24/2013, dated
December 26, the price of electrical energy for consumers in the Canary Island systems is the same
as for those living in mainland Spain [22].

4. Results
After an overview of the three different cases in Germany, South Africa and El Hierro, this part
presents the results that deal with the security of supply in the national electricity grid as well
as the actual effect of PHS in the grid.

4.1. The German Case

Figure 13 shows the energy consumption and production for 2022 on a weekly database to see
seasonal changes. The legend for the different electricity production types is the same as in Figure
5.

Figure 13: Electricity production and demand in Germany for 2022.

In 2022 Hydro pumped storage made with 10,603 GWh, 2.15 % out of the total production,
which was 493,218 GWh. Considering an installed capacity of hydro-pumped storage of 9,600
MW, hydro-pumped storage can be in theory 17 % of the total electricity production if 56,303
MW as average electricity production is used, which is close to the 14 % which were mentioned
earlier.

4.1.1. PHS Charge and Discharge Compared with Renewable Energies Production
The previous chapter looked at how the PHS generation influences the electricity grid, but charg-
ing times were not considered. The following Figure 14 shows the charging as well as discharging
of the PHS in comparison with renewable energies and the total grid load. The legend for the
different electricity production types is the same as in Figure 5 and the blue line represents the
charging of the PHS.

8
 Figure 14: PHS charging and discharging compared with renewable energies production.

It is visible, that the PHS are mainly producing electricity in the morning and evening during
the consumption peaks. The recharging happens during the night, when the demand is low as
well as during midday when there is PV energy available. The figure shows the February week
in 2023 which includes significant changes in generated wind energy, as it is visible in the dark
blue color. Taking a closer look at the charging times of the PHS during the hours when a lot
of wind energy is produced, only shows small changes. This is due to the maximum amount of
energy that can be stored in the water reservoirs. During this time the other coal and gas power
plants produced less energy to compensate for the big portion of wind energy available.
Another important measurement is the efficiency of the PHS over the year. In 2022 all PHS in
Germany consumed 14,350 GWh and produced 10,603 GWh which gives it a yearly efficiency of
73.9 %.

4.1.2. Changing Electricity Price

There are different models of how electricity prices change in Germany. To simplify it, it changes
every 15 minutes and gets more expensive when supply is less than demand and versus versa. If
a PHS wants to buy electricity it has to pay for the regular market price and if it wants to sell
electricity it still has to pay a Power Grid Fee [23].
To answer the question, of how the electricity price per kWh changes during the day/season the
following graph from SMARD is chosen, which shows the produced energy by PHS and the day-
ahead price as a monthly average from January 2020 to December 2022.

Figure 15: Produced electricity from PHS and day-ahead marked price for 2020-2022.

For the PHS energy, there is no big seasonal change visible, but it is different for the day ahead
price. For the year 2020, the day ahead price was lower in the spring/summer and higher in the
autumn/winter which is mainly driven through the big portion of PV in the electricity grid in the

9
spring/summer. Then the day ahead price rises from the beginning of 2021 till the end of 2022
with the highest peak in August 2022. 2021 was the time when the economy and daily life slowly
went back to pre-Covid times, which resulted in higher production and consumption on a global
scale [24]. Then at the beginning of 2022, the Ukraine war started which resulted in an energy
crisis in Europe and strong rising electricity prices due to the plans to reduce gas consumption for
electricity production. This pushed up the electricity price to 235 €/MWh for an annual average
in 2022. From 2023 till today the price went down to an average of 100 €/MWh.
To sum up, PHS does not have a big impact on the electricity grid on a monthly average. The
bigger impact lies on the day marked which is visible in Figure 16.

Figure 16: PHS production and day-ahead market price for three days in a 15-minute interval.

Here the 13,14 and 15.02.2023 with a 15-minute solution are chosen. For all three days, it is visible
that there are two peaks within the day (8 and 19 o’clock). During this times the electricity
demand is the highest which results in a higher electricity price and also the PHS produces the
most power during the two peaks.

4.1.3. Planed Projects

There are several new projects planned, but a lot of the projects got pushed back in realization
time and canceled. Overall there is just one project in construction and four in acceptance
procedure within Germany. The current political situation in Germany makes it difficult for
investors to invest in new projects over many decades [25].

4.2. The South African Case

The interactions between the four PHS in South Africa and the other grid components are de-
veloped in this subsection. Unlike the German grid, load sheddings proper to the South African
grid are studied as well.

4.2.1. Interaction with Intermittent Renewable Sources

Figure 17 allows to observe a first system behavior: PHS doesn’t initially work as energy storage
for renewable energies. In fact, pumping occurs generally during the night when the load is
minimal and generation occurs during the day to support RE generation to meet the demand.
During off-peak hours when baseload power stations that run at a steady rate and renewable
production is above the consumption high pumps might work as well. Stored electricity in South-
Africa is thus mainly fossil-based.

10
 Figure 17: PHS pumping and generation compared to RE generation.

4.2.2. Interaction with the Fluctuating Demand

According to figure 18, the PHS installations are definitely generating in peak hours and recharging
in off-peak hours except few exceptions due to the mismatch between dispatchable production
forecast and actual demand. This operation is called peak load shaving. In South Africa, peak
units are often not enough to balance the grid and thus are supported by load shedding. This
affects the comfort and everyday life of citizens as well as the healthy level of business activity.

Figure 18: PHS pumping-generating power & peak load.

4.2.3. Interaction with Load Sheddings

In an unconstrained power system, energy
storage is usually charged from excess supply
at times of lower demand. Between Septem-
ber 2022 and May 2023, Eskom had to imple-
ment near-continuous load shedding, meaning
there was not the expected excess supply to
charge energy storage as would typically be
needed. In some cases, load shedding was in-
tentionally continued (or initiated) at night
when demand dropped so that Eskom could
replenish upper reservoirs in its pumped hy-
dro facilities (Figure 19 for an illustrative ex- Figure 19: PHS pumping power & load reduc-
ample). tion overlapping.

11
This scenario has more hours of load shedding, but the severity of load shedding is less when
households and businesses need more power [26]. As an order of idea pumping overlapped load
reduction for 2705 hours between September 2022 and May 2023 which is equivalent to 41 % of
the time.

4.3. The El Hierro Case

Like all the islands, El Hierro has a high priority to ensure the supply in order to avoid blackouts.
The reserve margins (capacity installed in comparison with peak demand) have to be between
40-70 % much higher than in continental areas [22]. As a high potential of wind has been installed
in comparison to the peak demand, a method of storage was necessary to maintain grid stability.
The PHS has been built to work only with the wind farm which increases the efficiency.

4.3.1. Technical Specifications of the Wind-Hydro Power Plant

With the Gorona del Viento plant, the electricity needs of the island are covered with 100 %
renewable for a certain amount of days. The record for consecutive days of electricity supply
without any consumption of fossil fuel is in 2019 with 24 consecutive days with the diesel plant
turned from July 14th to August 6th.

Energy Energy Energy

Part of the Part
production consumption production Yield
wind energy of RE
Year from the for PHS from PHS of the
production in the
wind turbines pumping discharging PHS
stored mix
(GWh) (GWh) (GWh)
Project 1
40.36 29.21 19.34 72.4% 66.2% 73.4%
2018 34.7 18.7 7.9 53.9% 42.2% 56%
2019 33.9 17.1 6.8 50.4% 39.8% 54%
2020 28.0 13.3 5.1 46.8% 38.3% 42%
2021 33.1 15.6 6.0 47.1% 38.5% 48%
2022 32.2 14.7 5.7 45.7% 38.8% 48%

Table 2: Operational cumulative data per year from 2018 to 2022 and comparison with the
project.

In Table 2, it can be seen that the year with the best figure is 2018 with a part of renewable
energy of 56 %. Nevertheless, comparing the different figures with the ones defined in the project,
it appears that the plant doesn’t achieve the goals planned. Both the production from the wind
turbines and the production from the hydro turbines are significantly lower than expected. The
storage efficiency is particularly low in comparison with the project and a normal yield for PHS.

4.3.2. Intervention of PHS in Daily Production

PHS is both used for electricity supply and support of the grid. Indeed, PHS has a key role in the
stability of the grid and enables to convert of a variable source of energy (wind) into a controlled
one. Technically there are the water pumps and in particular the two variable speed power with
power factor compensation.
Comparing the 11.3 MW of PHS capacity and the 8 MW of peak demand, the PHS has theo-
retically the capacity to fully compensate for the supply during peak load. Nevertheless, for the
moment, the system is not designed to work fully with renewable and the diesel power plant still
has a big importance for the stability of the grid. The scheduling of the electricity production
is made for each hour combining the three sources (wind, PHS, diesel) so that the supply and
1
Data taken from [22]

12
demand is always are balance. Planning is mainly based on wind forecasts and therefore the daily
production results are very different regarding the proportion of each source, depending on the
day. The generative mix accumulated graphs below depict different behaviors of the PHS.

Figure 20: Electricity production,02.07.2023 Figure 21: Electricity production, 16.11.2023

Figure 22: Electricity production,21.05.2023 Figure 23: Electricity production, 26.07.2023

Figure 24: Electricity production,10.08.2023 Figure 25: Label

The PHS has been designed to only work with the wind farm so it is pumping when there is wind
production as we can see in Figures 20, 23, 24 and 21.
Before commissioning the plant, four general operating conditions have been identified: a con-
ventional day, a high-wind day, a low-wind day and a low wind-day with low upper reservoir [27].
During a conventional day, the energy is produced by wind with compensation by the hydro tur-
bines mainly during peak hours. This typical behavior can be illustrated in Figure 20). There is
mainly a production of wind during the day with storage in the PHS. The PHS is then generated
when the wind is decreasing between 1 pm and 5 pm and between 8-11 pm. A little bit of diesel is
also produced during those two peaks. A high-wind day is comparable to a conventional day with
less compensation from the hydro turbines. Those conditions are more or less the ones on the
10.08.2023 (Figure 24 with PHS operating the full day. It is an example without production with
diesel where the hybrid (wind and hydro) is enough to cover the demand. During the morning
and the evening, the wind produces enough to supply the grid and up to 50% of the production is
stored. It can be seen that storage is less important during peak demand (7-10 am and 7-11 pm).
In the afternoon, the production of wind is decreasing and PHS can compensate with the energy
stored before. Theoretically, during a low-wind day the energy is almost exclusively produced

13
by the hydroelectric system but in reality, it is not the case. On the 21.08.2023 (Figure 22) for
the example, the upper reservoir is not low but mainly production is provided by Diesel. In the
model, diesel generators should be work only in the case of a low-wind day with a low upper
reservoir. It is for example like on Figure 21 where we can see that PHS is even on stand-by
when there is not wind until 7 pm. After 7 pm, the wind starts increasing so the part of diesel
in production is progressively decreasing and storage in the PHS increases because it is night so
the demand is lower. Figure 23 is a special case illustrating a production peak of the PHS. When
the wind is totally falling down at 12, the PHS is producing 100 % of the electricity for around
30 minutes before the diesel generators start.

4.3.3. Development Perspectives

In conclusion, after nine years of operation, the wind-hydro power plant in El Hierro has produced
results much lower than expected when the project was designed. Nevertheless, the aim still is
to meet the island’s demand for electricity with renewable energy, guaranteeing network stability
according to the website of Endesa [28]. For this, in 2023 a new step project was presented,
planning to build a PV plant. The first phase of the project will include the implementation of
5 MW of PV with 5 MW of storage capacity in batteries. This will increase in the second phase
of the project with a further 7 MW of PV and 5 MW battery.

5. Discussions
To compare the three cases, the main data of the grid and the PHS are presented in the following
table. All dates are from 2022 and are mentioned as well as cited in the report at an earlier state.

Germany South Africa El Hierro

Grid Related
Installed production capacity [MW] 232,761 44,104 36.2
Electricity consumption [TWh/year] 482.6 213.6 0.047
Electricity consumption per capita [KWh/year] 6,970 3,758 4,275
Wind/solar installed capacity [MW] 128,785 4,076 11.5
Max imports capacity [MW] 11,089 1,700 0
Max peak-base load [MW] 2 40,000 12,771 4
Electricity price [€/MWh] 235 3 34 - 270 4
-
PHS Related
Capacity [MW] 9,600 2,912 11.3
Annual production [GWh] 10,603 4,451 5.1
Max share in grid [%] 14 13 100
Efficiency [%] 73.9 76 38.8

Table 3: Summary of grid and PHS facts for the three countries.

First of all, those three cases show that PHS can be used in different contexts and grids. PHS is
a well-established technology for energy storage in the world. In Germany, South Africa and El
Hierro, PHS are an important part of the electricity grid and can help to maintain its stability
and meet the peak demand.
In Germany, there are a lot of PHS integrated into a large-size grid as the German grid is con-
nected with its neighboring countries. Thus, Germany can buy electricity from its neighboring
2
Stands for the biggest gap between the lowest and highest demand in the same day.
3
This is the average price over the year in 2022. However, the price decreased in 2023 to 100 €/MWh due to
the gas crisis in 2022.
4
34€ in low demand season and off-peak hours and 270€ in high demand season and peak hours

14
countries which is a key factor when we talk about the security of supply. In South Africa, the
capacity of PSH installed is less than the one in Germany but reaches 6 % of the total installed
capacity. The security of supply is a tense subject in South Africa as nine million people don’t
have access to electricity and load shedding happens quite often. South Africa exports and im-
ports also electricity. This electricity network is not as big and developed as it is in Europe
so PHS, as shown above, can be a good way to regulate the grid and improve the security of
supply. In Germany and South Africa, PHS reached a similar non-negligible maximum share in
the grid, 14 % and 13 % respectively. The case of El Hierro is quite special as it is a very small
isolated grid, more than 1000 times smaller than the grids in Germany and South Africa in terms
of installed production capacity. The PHS is part of an innovative hybrid project that aims to
remove the island from its dependence on oil and improve the security of supply. The capacity
of PHS installed is higher than the peak load and due to the size of the system, the generation
with the PHS can reach 100% of the production in some moments, although it is quite rare in
reality. Finally, comparing the efficiencies of PHS reported in Table 3, we note that the PHS
have a similar and quite standard efficiency in Germany and South Africa. On the opposite the
efficiency of the PHS in El Hierro is quite much lower illustrating the difficulty of managing small
systems. The PHS is not operated as much as it has been designed for. The company Gorona
del Viento doesn’t provide answers and data to explain it but some hypotheses have been made
regarding problems in the grid stability [29]. The presence of wind turbines generally increases
the instability of the grid on term of frequency because of its zero contribution to the constant
inertia. Thus, problems in the grid stability could explain why the diesel generators are almost
always working as well as why the PHS is more pumping than generating as the pumps are speed
motor pumps equipped with power factor compensation that help regulating the grid stability.
Another reason explaining why PHS is not operating as much as expected can be linked with the
storage capacity. The storage capacity of PHS is around 270 MWh [29] so using 3,500 MWh as an
average monthly consumption, we deduced that PHS fully charged can cover the demand when
there is no wind during at most two days that is not enough to enable the system to work without
the diesel plant in particular during the month of November when wind conditions are not so good.

PHS is said to contribute to grid stability because it is a controllable energy source that can be
turned on almost instantaneously if the upper reservoir is not empty. In the end, PHS are a
flexible parameter in the electricity grid and cycles of charge and discharge are mostly influenced
by the production of other sources and the electricity demand. In South Africa and Germany,
this second criterion is predominant and the daily production graphs show that PHS plays an
important role during peak load. In both countries, the PHS gets recharged during the night
when the load is low and on the other hand, PHS generates electricity mainly during the peak
hours in the morning and evening, where the evening peak load in Germany is bigger than in
South Africa. The main difference between South Africa and Germany is that PHS is for pre-
venting load shedding during peak hours in South Africa, whereas in Germany PHS supports the
stability of the grid and reduces the amount of imported electricity from neighboring countries. In
Germany, the question of electricity prices is highly connected with the security of supply because
the electricity market is deregulated, meaning that prices are not fixed by the government and
prices fluctuate during the day. Prices are governed by demand and available production capac-
ities and their associated fuel. When electricity generation is not enough to cover the demand,
Germany buys electricity from its neighbors and the electricity price goes up. Like all storage
methods, PHS can play a role in the regulation of prices. Indeed, we can buy electricity when
it is cheaper, store it and release it when electricity is more expensive to limit price augmentations.

On the other side, charges and discharges of the PHS in the island El Hierro is mainly governed
by the production of renewable energy (essentially wind in this case) but this parameter can also
influence South African and German grids. Higher penetration of renewable is synonymous with

15
an increase in the instability of the grid because of the intermittency of renewable energy. Wind
is an even more unpredictable source than solar because peak production can occur at any time of
the day. In El Hierro, PHS combined with wind power is designed as a base and peak load supply.
PHS can only be charged with the wind farm and charges and discharges are correlated with wind
production more than the demand. The PHS is almost always recharging when the wind farm
produces electricity because the wind capacity has been oversized compared to seasonal demand
changes and the PHS capacity has been designed to face strong wind power intermittency. PHS
is running during times when the wind is not that strong but the restitution of energy is not so
good and the diesel generators are almost always turning on when the wind production is not
enough to cover the demand. In the best scenario, the diesel generator is not needed at all and
the needed electricity is only provided by the wind farm with PSH as a regulator. The production
of renewable energies is also playing an important role in Germany and South Africa although
the effect of renewable energies in South Africa is rather slim, because most power is produced by
coal. In South-Africa, renewable units are mainly based on solar energy, making quite predictable
peak production during sunlight hours. PHS is also generating during peak hours in the day and
thanks to its quick ramping speed, it helps compensate for the weak ramping speed of solar in
the morning compared to the demand-increasing rate. The running times of PHS in Germany are
mostly affected by the electricity generated by wind, rather than from the electricity generated
from the sun. This is because there is not much sun in the morning and evening hours during peak
load. Since the German grid is more reliable than the South African one, PHS is charging with
excess solar and wind production in a bigger proportion. This allows less fossil-fired base-load
production during the night.

6. Conclusion
The case study of PHS integration in three contrasting electricity grids highlighted the flexibility
and the multiuse of this technology. In both South African and El Hierro grids, pumped hydro
storage units are crucial keys to ensure grid stability and act as a stopgap or as a production-
demand time decoupler respectively. In Germany, the grid is less likely to collapse due to their
reliable energy production system and their import capacity. PHS is proportionally less impor-
tant but is a link in the chain of security of supply and constitutes a strategic reserve. El Hierro
pilot case showed that PHS can be a key feature in future smart grids and small island grids with
a big renewable fraction. German and South African cases highlighted the application of PHS
in wider grids with big base load production levels. Even with a very small annual share in the
grid, PHS operation is critical. Together with fossil-based peak load plants, intermittent solar,
and quite unpredictable wind, PHS becomes critical when it comes to absorbing peak load two
times a day. More specifically, PHS discharge operation shows complementary performance over
time with photovoltaic generation and offers ramping speed assistance for hardly maneuverable
base load plants in sudden changes in the consumption pattern.
Unfortunately, PHS is mostly charged during the night with so-called grey energy in these two
countries. To reach green stored energy, PHS should interact with oversized solar capacities or
wind plants as in El Hierro. The charge-discharge operation can also serve to optimize the eco-
nomics of an interconnected system.

Further investigations should focus on the PHS’s problem-oriented services to the electricity grid
such as frequency reserve, voltage regulation or black-start support.

In an urgent need in the decline of fossil-based production to meet 2050 global emission goals,
the absolute necessity of energy storage and to some extent, PHS facilities constitute the main
takeaway message of this paper. In small or large electricity grid operations, the benefits offered
by the PHS should lead to an increase in technical-economical feasibility analyses all over the
world.

16
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