Doosan Enerbility announced on the 20th that it has signed a contract worth 330 billion won with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power for the supply of main equipment for the Yeongdong pumped storage power plant units 1 and 2. This marks the first construction of a new pumped storage power plant in the country in about 14 years since the completion of the Yecheon pumped storage power plant in 2011. The project, which has a capacity of 500 MW (megawatts), is expected to be completed by 2030.
Through this contract, Doosan Enerbility will perform the overall design, manufacturing, and installation of equipment, including turbines, generators, and electrical and control facilities. A turbine, which converts the potential energy of water into rotational motion, acts as a turbine in a pumped storage power plant. The Yeongdong pumped storage power plant will be the first in the country to apply variable-speed equipment capable of adjusting power output.
Pumped storage power generation is a representative energy storage system (ESS·Energy Storage System) that complements the intermittency of renewable energy. Excess electricity is used to pump water from the lower dam to the upper dam, and when power is insufficient, the water is sent back to the lower dam to generate electricity.
According to the government's 11th basic plan for power supply and demand, pumped storage power plants with a total capacity of 5.7 GW (gigawatts) are scheduled to be built by 2037 across nine locations.