White Pine Pumped Storage is a proposed hydroelectric energy storage project located approximately eight miles northeast of Ely in White Pine County, Nevada. The project involves constructing two above-ground reservoirs and an approximately 25-mile-long transmission line. The upper reservoir will be in the Duck Creek Range, and the lower reservoir will be located about 2,000 feet lower in the Steptoe Valley near Highway 93. Tunnels will join the two reservoirs. An underground powerhouse will contain equipment to generate electricity from the water as it flows from the upper reservoir through the pump-turbine generators in the powerhouse and into the lower reservoir. The same equipment would also be available to pump water from the lower reservoir back to the upper reservoir, enabling the closed-loop system to start the cycle again when needed.
The interconnection transmission line will extend approximately 25 miles from the Project switch-station to the existing Robinson Summit substation located south of the Lincoln Highway. The Project interconnection transmission line will be located predominantly on lands managed by the BLM within the 110-114 Corridor (Ely to Milford) of the Section 368 Region 3 Energy Corridor and immediately north of the existing NV Energy transmission line #3430 (BLM serial number 63162).
White Pine Pumped Storage has a planned generating capacity of 1,000 megawatts (MW), representing about 1/8th of Nevada’s peak power demand on a hot summer day. When starting with a full upper reservoir, the plant could provide full power output for eight hours before recharging (8,000 MWh of capacity). The water requirement for providing this level of power output and storage duration is a one-time fill of approximately 5,000 acre-feet, supplemented periodically by what is needed to make up for evaporation loss.
Requirements for Pumped Storage
While pumped storage is an attractive option for utilities, it can only be used in certain places. Suitable pumped storage sites that only need 5,000 to 6,000 acre-feet of initial fill water are uncommon. Typically, these projects require more water. Ideal pumped storage projects require a rare combination of factors, including:
a large vertical drop over a short distance (for example, the 2,000+ feet available at the White Pine Pumped Storage Site)
topography (landforms) that are amenable to building reservoirs of sufficient size with less required earth-moving and dam heights
a nearby source of water for initial fill and evaporation makeup
nearby transmission infrastructure and capacity
no or low environmental impacts
geology that supports engineering and long-term operation of underground facilities and reservoirs
The proposed site for White Pine Pumped Storage meets all these requirements.
Pumped Storage in the U.S.
There are currently 42 pumped storage plants operating in the US. Nearly all of these projects were built to shift energy produced by nuclear power plants or coal plants in the middle of the night to daytime use when it could replace expensive oil-based generation. Today, utilities are interested in using pumped storage for a different mission: to help ensure a reliable power supply while integrating variable and intermittent energy sources like solar and wind. Variable energy renewable energy sources are important because they are carbon-free, however, they are often unavailable during peak demand hours. Pumped storage helps to address this fundamental challenge of electrical energy by helping to store excess energy and release it at programmed times, thereby matching when it is generated with when it is needed.
Pumped storage can further provide all the grid reliability services also known as ancillary services. Ancillary services are critical to maintaining a reliable, safe, and affordable electricity grid. For these reasons, projects like White Pine are the best available bulk energy storage technology for managing the integration of renewable energy.
