(April 15): China’s largest grid operator has pledged to spend 31 billion yuan on pumped hydro storage this year, in support of the company’s plan to lift total capacity by more than 70% by the end of the decade.
State Grid Corp of China, which supplies power to over 80% of the country, will raise operational capacity from 45GW to 78GW by 2030 in a bid to bolster the country’s record-breaking renewables expansion, according to the official State Grid News.
The utility will join smaller peer China Southern Power Grid Co in helping to deliver on the government’s five-year plan, which calls for an additional 100GW of pumped hydro by 2030.
State Grid plans to add more than 30GW of new capacity by then, with another 30GW under construction. Pumped hydro is a long-standing means of storing energy at scale and uses water released downhill to generate electricity.
Storage is becoming more critical in China, particularly for a renewables sector that’s seeing mounting curtailments because of bottlenecks in the grid. Unlike batteries, which are better over short durations, pumped hydro can store energy for many hours or even days.
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