Novel long-term electricity storage technologies for flexible hydropower
Project overview
Project: Novel long-term electricity storage technologies for flexible hydropower
Project acronym: STORE2HYDRO
Type: HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Call: HORIZON-CL5-2023-D3-01-13
Finance: European Commission
TRL: 3 - 5
Start: 01 January 2024
End: 31 December 2027
Project ID: 101136176
Project cost: 4.3 Million Euro
Coordinator: Staffan Lundström, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden
Total partners: 11
Work packages: 08
Website: www.store2hydro.com
Email: info@store2hydro.com
Background
Store2hydro is financed by European Commission under HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions (HORIZON-CL5-2023-D3-01-13) for four years from 01 January 2024. Total cost of the project is around 4.3 million Euro. The primary objective is to optimize the electricity storage through the integration of reversible pump-turbine technology into current hydropower infrastructures. The project aims to conduct research and find technological solution at TRL 5. The solution will be tested at the relevant laboratory environment. The project is coordinated by Staffan Lundström from Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, and the project collaborates with 11 partners across Europe. Overall activities are divided into eight work packages, including project administration and data management, gender equality and diversity. The first work package focuses on Storage potential in Europe led by Technische Universitaet Wien. The second work package focuses on innovative storage solutions related to reversible pump turbine led by Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The third work package focuses on sustainability and circular economy led by Stiftelsen Norsk Institutt for Naturforskning. The fourth work package focuses on specific needs of the energy system for modeling and optimization of energy market, led by Aarhus Universitet. The fifth work package is continuation of the second work package, which is validation of innovative hydropower storage solutions led by Luleå University of Technology. The sixth work package focuses on investment and operational costs led by Aker Solutions AS. The seventh work package is very important and it is focuses on dissemination and communication, which is led by WRG Europe Ltd. The last work package is consortium management and ethics led by the project coordinator. More detail about the project is available on the official website of the project: Home -Store2Hydro.
Waterpower laboratory (EPT, NTNU) plays leading role in this project, specifically under the work packages 2 and 5. The work package 2 is led by Chirag Trivedi as a work package leader. Under this work package, we aim to develop the technological solution for the reversible pump-turbine, enables more energy storage flexibility. Our focus is to address the limitations of the reversible pump-turbine to store energy at off-design load conditions. At off design load conditions, the reversible pump-turbine undergoes severe cavitation, which limits the operation in both turbine and pump mode. Furthermore, several hydropower plants in worldwide aim to refurbish and upgrade in near future, replacing the existing Francis turbine with the reversible pump-turbine. This will incur large CAPEX and OPEX as several components of a power plant require to change, including large changes in the civil engineering structures at the downstream side to accommodate the required net positive suction head. Under this project, we conduct research on reversible pump-turbine that allows minimum CAPEX and OPEX during upgrade. We aim to develop a technological solution, rim driven thruster integrated into the draft tube, for developing required pressure for the reversible pump-turbine in pump and turbine mode to minimize the cavitation and enable larger operating range. The Waterpower laboratory will work with the Uppsala Universitet, Sweden, for developing rim driven electric motor for the thruster. Large scale experiments will be conducted in the Waterpower laboratory during the project period at TRL level 3 - 5 and the rim driven thruster will be tested in the laboratory. Detailed activities and tasks are presented below.
Project partners
| # | Name | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luleå University of Technology (LTU) | Sweden |
| 2 | Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) | Norway |
| 3 | Stiftelsen Norsk Institutt for Naturforskning (NINA) | Norway |
| 4 | Aarhus Universitet (AU) | Denmark |
| 5 | Alma Mater Studiorum - Universita Di Bologna (UNIBO) | Italy |
| 6 | Technische Universitaet Wien (TUW) | Austria |
| 7 | Uppsala Universitet (UU) | Sweden |
| 8 | University Of Strathclyde (UOS) | United Kingdom |
| 9 | Aker Solutions AS (AKER) | Norway |
| 10 | Vattenfall AB (VFALL) | Sweden |
| 11 | WRG Europe Ltd (WRG) | United Kingdom |
Project partners, work packages and corresponding deliverables in this project
Project team
Chirag Trivedi is leading the all activities related to store2hydro project in NTNU and Waterpower laboratory. Chirag Trivedi has more than 15 years of experience on Francis turbine and reversible pump-turbines. In addition coordinating the activities and supervising the students, he is also involved in both numerical and experimental work as well as developing the test rig for this project.
Johannes Djupesland is the PhD candidate and work on store2hydro project full time. He joined project team in January 2024, soon after starting the project. He conducts research on reversible pump-turbine related to IEC standard model test on pump-turbine in Waterpower laboratory, design and optimization of thruster for the model pump-turbine in the laboratory. Johannes is the key person to carry out activities under Task 2.1.
Kerlef Valen Kerlefson writes master's thesis during spring 2025. The title of the thesis is "Experimental study of reversible pump-turbine at selected operating conditions." Kerlef Valen Kerlefson will carry out the experiments on the reversible pump-turbine following IEC60193, including calibration of the important instruments equipped on the test rig. Main task is to determine the efficiency of the pump-turbine runner. After the efficiency measurements, Kerlef Valen Kerlefson will continue unsteady pressure measurements at other valuable operating conditions needed for the design of the thruster.
Mathias Eikebø writes master's thesis during spring 2025. The title of the thesis is "Numerical study of reversible pump-turbine at selected operating conditions." Mathias Eikebø will carry out 3D computational fluid dynamic simulations of the reversible pump-turbine at different operating conditions. Main task is to investigate the flow field in the runner and draft tube that provides required input to the thruster design. The task also includes the study of the secondary flow in the draft tube comparing different outlet profiles of the draft tube.
Gustav Oskar Ludvig Ambj̈ornsson writes master's thesis during spring 2025. The title of the thesis is "Design and optimization of rim type thruster." Gustav Oskar Ludvig Ambj̈ornsson aimed to carry out optimization of the blades needed for the rim type thruster. Gustav will use design of experiments and AI to optimize the two-dimensional profile of the blade and extend to three-dimensional profile. The final design will be simulate using ANSYS.
Ole Martin Fjuk writes project during spring 2025. The title of the project is "Design and optimization of rim type thruster." Ole Martin Fjuk will work with Gustav Oskar Ludvig Ambj̈ornsson for optimization of the thruster blade however, Ole Martin Fjuk will focus on other optimization methods and automation of the blade profiling and parametrization within computational fluid dynamic simulations.