Abstract:

Hydropower has the advantages of clean and low-operation cost, and the reasonable development of hydropower resources is of great significance to promote the social sustainable development, specifically, the pumped-storage power stations will improve the stability and reliability of the power grid operation, as its distinct natures of efficient energy storage. However, the development of the traditionally pumped-storage power station is also restricted by many factors such as the geographical conditions. In order to better utilize the hydropower resources, this work explores a new pathway of the conventional and energy-storage hybrid hydropower concept, and takes the development of hydropower in the Manas River in Xinjiang as an example. Based on the planned three typical storage-type hydropower plants, four optimized development schemes are proposed. According to the waterhead and daily adjustment capacity of storage, the diameter of the pressure pipe of the power tunnel and the cross-sectional area of the waterway are increased to improve increase the plant hydropower capacity, the comprehensive utilization benefits of the hydropower resource will be evidently enhanced. Compared to the original development plan for the graded utilization of hydropower resource, the maximum installed capacity and total annual power generation of the energy-storage hybrid hydropower scenario will improve to 2.7 million kW and 6.012 billion kW·h, which are 3.9 times and 4 times higher than the original one, respectively. Moreover, this scenario is able to consume the surplus electricity of 5.724 billion kW·h of the solar/wind power or the off-peak power load, which will enhance the efficient utilization of hydropower resources. This positive method provides an alternative route for optimizing the exploration of hydropower resources.

Key words: hydropower generation, cascade utilization, conventional and energy-storage hybrid hydropower station, optimized utilization