Pumped storage hydropower.

As part of the HydroWIRES Initiative, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) recently launched the Pumped Storage Hydropower (PSH) Valuation Tool, a web-based platform that takes users through the valuation process presented in the Pumped Storage Hydropower Valuation Guidebook.

One significant hurdle standing between the United States and its goal of 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035 and a net-zero energy economy by 2050 is a lack of clean energy storage. The good news is solutions are already available—chief among them PSH, which currently accounts for 95% of all utility-scale energy storage in the United States. However, the development and deployment of new PSH projects is a large undertaking with high capital costs and can seem daunting without the ability to calculate the value of PSH plants and their associated services.

To help more developers accurately calculate the full value potential of a PSH project, a team from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory created the PSH Valuation Tool to guide users through the 15-step valuation process. The platform features a back-end benefit-cost analysis tool, a price-taker valuation tool for small-scale PSH, and a multi-criteria decision analysis tool. It is available free to the public and, when used with the guidebook, will help stakeholders make decisions about funding, approving, and/or pursuing new or existing PSH projects.

Learn more about the tool.

Learn more about the guidebook.