Conjunctive Operation of Hydro and Solar PV Power with Pumped Storage at Kafue Gorge Power Station (Zambia)

Abstract: This report covers the work carried out to redesign the two existing conventional hydro power stations in Zambia on the Kafue river into the pumped storage facility with solar photovoltaic power so that security of supply and water conservation is achieved to reduce the power deficits during the dry and drought periods. The two stations are Kafue gorge upper power station (KGUPS) and Kafue gorge lower power station (KGLPS) with an installed capacity of 990 MW and 750 MW respectively. These two stations are dammed hydro power station with the reservoirs size of 785 106 m3 and 80 106 m3 respectively and situated on the 9000 hectares of land with the net head of 400 m. The two plants are situated 15 kilometres apart and the water inflow in the KGUPS is dependent on the water release from the holding dam Ithezi- thezi (ITT dam) situated 220 kilometres from the KGUPS dam. The work covered the sizing of the storage dams and determining the autonomy days needed in order to keep the station (KGUPS) running with minimal impact on power blackouts which were calculated at 5 days considering the size of the dam and the available energy. The financial calculation for the PV system was also carried out in this study except for the hydro system which was not carried out due to the time allocated to conduct this study. The proposed operation scheme for the two hydro stations and the solar PV system is also carried out in order to increase solar power penetration in the Zambian grid, reduce power deficit and conserve water during the days/times with enough solar power.   Designing of the system was carried out using Homer Pro software on which the hydro power station was modelled using the water influx into the turbines at KGUPS, the plant net head of 400 meters was also used with the calculated head losses of 7 % for the 4 meter diameter penstock between KGUPS dam, KGUPS machine hall to the KGLPS dam. The KGUPS dam was modelled as a natural battery so that charging is done using the water from the KGLPS dam, the battery with a total annual capacity of 428 GWh was modelled. PVsyst and PVGIS software tools were also used to simulate the production from the optimised PV system so that the accuracy of tools can be compared.   To cover the load of 777 MW/day (18.6 GWh/day), the available power to provide the necessary energy for the pumps was 270 MW as surplus power from the hydro power machines at KGUPS .The available power from solar PV plant of 236 MW maximum was achieved from the optimized 300 MW PV plant in the dry period of the day which occurs in the month of October, with 300 MW converter , 8 % penetration of solar into the Zambian grid and the pumping scheme was able to provide 589 hours of autonomy with 80 % average state of charge. The total maximum power of 390 MW was good enough to provide power to the two pumps of each 165 MW. From the simulations carried out in the increment of solar PV system from 50 MW to 350 MW, the reliance on hydro power can be reduced drastically and power deficits due to the drought situation as the case for the year 2016 can be alleviated. 300 MW PV plant was selected in order to match with the available land, machines to work as pumps and the initial investment cost to be loosely monitored. The optimized 300 MW PV system with the life of 30 years had a project capital cost of $113 million united states dollars with the levelized cost of electricity 0.0487 $/kWh. The solar PV plant has a payback period of 9 years considering the yearly production from solar PV of 534 GWh as simulated from Homer, PVGIS interactive tool gave an output of 491 GWh. Pumped hydro systems has the capability of utilizing the already existing structures like dams and turbines. They also have the capability of stabilizing the grid network and allow easy penetration of renewable energy technologies like wind and solar. With the government of Zambia pushing for more renewables in the grid by 2030, a pumped hydro project at KGUPS will certainly be able to stabilize the grid and provide a scheme that will be able to push thermal plants to run at full capacity and the efficiency can be improved. In accordance with the IEC TC (technical committee) [30] pumped hydro energy storage is a mature bulk energy technology offering stability and allowing the penetration of intermittent renewables like wind and solar.