The current development plans for the hydropower sector in Serbia indicate its crucial role in the energy transition, with a focus on the balancing capabilities of reversible hydroelectric power plants, according to experts. Serbia, where hydropower plants generate about 30 percent of electricity, plans to build two more reversible hydroelectric power plants (RHPPs) in the coming years. Reversible hydroelectric power plants have two reservoirs, upper and lower.
Hydropower has played a crucial role in European energy for decades, providing a unique combination of safe, affordable, and clean electricity production, writes Dr. Branka Nakomćić-Smaragdakis.
Although hydropower plants are considered a well-known technology in the production of electricity, changing their role (flexibility, resilience, digitalization, sustainability) requires changes in the operation of hydropower plants, which increases the need for additional research and activities.
Therefore, hydropower can play a key role in the clean energy transition, both in Europe and in Serbia. Hydropower plants play a key role in establishing balance in the power system and are significant in the water management system.
Namely, this trend of increasing the amount of so-called variable energies (wind energy and solar energy) follow market demands for flexibility and dynamism, which implies energy storage and quick response.
Taking this into account, one of the solutions is reversible hydropower, which has the potential to balance systems using renewable energy sources both in the short term (seconds to minutes) and in the medium and long term (months or even years) using storage technology. of water that is pumped into an artificial lake.
Reversible hydropower plants are therefore an excellent choice for balancing variable production from wind and solar power plants.
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