the lower dam, blocking Back Creek, is 460 feet high Hydro. He noted that Dominion plans to only operate one site. penstocks through Little Mountain (brown lines) carry water down to the lower reservoir, then back up to the upper reservoir It stores energy for PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization in 13 states and the District of Columbia. A location to build a new dam and reservoir would be difficult to find, but a small project might be feasible. Once described as the "world's largest battery," its maximum generation capacity is 3,003 megawatts and its total storage capacity is 24,000 megawatt-hours. To use the power, the water is released from the upper reservoir back down into the river or lower reservoir. Once in operation, the facility would produce about $12 million annually in tax revenue for local governments, according to Richmond-based Chmura Economics & Analytics. (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). as a condition of awarding the license for the project, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission required VEPCO to compensate Highland County:12, increased property tax revenues from the project benefit Bath County, while Highland County experienced extra costs during the 1977-85 construction [14][15], Location of Bath County Pumped Storage Station in Virginia, Bath County Pumped Storage Station Website, List of largest hydroelectric power stations in the United States, "The Inside Story Of The World's Biggest 'Battery' And The Future Of Renewable Energy", "Bath County Pumped Storage Station | Dominion Energy", "Bath County Pumped Storage Project Tunnel System - Evaluation of Remedial Measures", "Water customers asked to conserve in drought", United States Environmental Protection Agency, Bath County Pumped Storage Station Home Page, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bath_County_Pumped_Storage_Station&oldid=1100370576, This page was last edited on 25 July 2022, at 15:27. Baseload power plants provide the electricity to pump water back into the upper reservoir. Dominion Energy's Bath County Hydroelectric pumped storage power station, the largest in the world, generates enough energy to power more than 750,000 homes. Owner/Manager: Dominion Energy (owner and manager) and Allegheny Energy (owner) "The generators here, once we get a call, we can have that unit online, producing electricity in . Though the two reservoirs eliminated five miles of natural stream habitat, they also improved the local fishery. An aerial view of the 265-acre upper reservoir and intake facility of the Bath County Pumped Storage Station, which produces hydroelectric power by gravity-feeding water to the powerhouse on the lower reservoir during daylight demand hours before that same water is returned to the upper reservoir during the night. To mitigate the impact of flooding 950 acres and five miles of Little Back Creek and Back Creek, Dominion Energy included built two recreational ponds and a campground.9, two recreational ponds and a campground were constructed as mitigation for flooding 950 acres and five miles of Little Back Creek and Back Creek Source: ESRI, ArcGIS Online. 2023. Introduction 2 II. Owned jointly by Dominion Energy (60%), Bath County Energy, LLC (approximately 24%) and Alleghany Power System (approximately 16%). At times of low electricity demand, like at night or on weekends, excess . It was the largest pumped-storage power station in the world until 2021, when it was surpassed by the Fengning Pumped Storage Power Station. The state agency has classified Back Creek between the dam and Route 600 as "Delayed Harvest Waters," requiring anglers to release whatever trout they catch and allowing use of just artificial lures (no bait) between October 1-May 31.10. When electricity is in high demand, water is released from the 265-acre upper reservoir to a 555-acre lower reservoir through tunnels, spinning turbines to produce electricity. Other alternatives examined included solar, wind, fusion, and fly-wheel energy storage. The overhaul of Bath County was completed within six years. The maximum power generation of 3,030MW is possible only when the reservoir is full. GE is a world leader in pumped storage plant equipment and supplies in-house capabilities not only for turbines and generators but also the full electrical balance of plant. Neither of the two investor-owned utilities needed the full capacity to generate peak power from the facility, but sharing the power and sharing the costs made it feasible. The plant is 80% efficient; for every four kilowatts of electricity generated, five kilowatts are consumed. Two downstream lakes are available for visitors. These projects include geophysical electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) surveys of both upper and lower dams; drilling and installation of vibrating wire piezometers to depths up to of 478 ft; preparing annual dam safety and surveillance monitoring plans; specification preparation for bathymetric and LiDAR surveys; updating supporting technical information documents; FERC Part 12 five-year inspection; potential failure mode analysis; and maintenance and replacement of instrumentation, including vibrating wire piezometers, weir instrumentation, weather stations, programming of Campbell Scientific dataloggers, and a unique automated monitoring system for pneumatic piezometers. Water is pumped from the lower reservoir up into a holding reservoir. The company claimed that the proposed Snowy Hydro expansion would have:5. What makes this different from other hydroelectric dams is that during times of low demand, power is taken from coal, nuclear, and other power plants and is used to pump water from the lower to the upper reservoir. Owned jointly by Dominion Energy (60%), Bath County Energy, LLC (approximately 24%) and Alleghany Power System (approximately 16%). The dams must be kept clear of trees. The Bath County Pumped Storage Station is a pumped storage hydroelectric power plant, which is described as the "largest battery in the world", with a maximum generation capacity of 3,003 MW, an average of 2,772 MW, and a total storage capacity of 24,000 MWh. There are two pull-offs along Rt. [4] It stores energy for PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization in 13 states and the District of Columbia. It has a structural volume of 4,000,000 cubic yards (3,100,000m3) and creates a reservoir with a surface area of 555 acres (225ha) and storage capacity of 27,927 acre-feet (34,447,000m3). When storing power, the flow can be as much as 12.7million US gallons (48,000m3) per minute (800m3/s). Coordinated expertise for your projects, from subsurface explorations and soil testing through engineering analysis, design, and construction support. [7][4] Connecting the upper reservoir to the power station are three water conduits between 3,1003,600 feet (9401,100m) long. Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Streamer, the Bath County Pumped Storage Station The great affair is to move. The upper reservoir on Little Back Creek has a surface area of 265 acres (107ha) and storage capacity of 35,599 acre-feet (43,911,000m3). But there's another option. The facility incorporates an upper and lower reservoir impounded by zoned embankment dams, with a head differential of over 1,100 feet. Dominion Energy has referred to its Bath County facility as a "mountain of power" and "a quiet giant," and claims it is:3, There are nearly 300 pumped storage projects in the world, and 40 in the United States. October 20, 2021. The creeks and recreational reservoirs have water quality sufficient for fish. Voith modernized the "quiet giant's" six turbines in 2009 to make it fit for the years to come. As it considers SW Va. site, Dominion offers tour of pumped storage station in Bath County. The six turbines were upgraded between 2004-2009, increasing output by slightly less than 10%. Several U.S. locations use this method, such as the Bath County pumped storage station in Virginia, and the Raccoon Mountain pumped storage . The last time either Bath or Highland had big gains in population was during the 1970s when the Bath County Pumped Storage Station was under construction. The lower reservoir dam on Back Creek is 135 feet (41m) high and 2,400 feet (730m) in length. Each penstock is 18 feet (5.5m) in diameter and between 9001,260 feet (270380m) in length. The recreational ponds offer warmwater fishing opportunities for largemouth bass, sunfish, and channel catfish. No water is consumed during the operation of the pumped storage facility. At peak times, when around 500 000 homes and companies in Virginia require power, the spherical shutoff valves are open and more than 850 cubic meters of water per second rush down the underground pipes from the upper basin and through the six turbines located in the lower part of the building. While generating, neighbors are unable to hear the operation. Maximum static pressure from the top of the water delivery system to the turbines is 1,320 feet (400m).[7][9]. The upper reservoir dam is 460 feet (140m) high, 2,200 feet (670m) long and has a structural volume of 18,000,000 cubic yards (14,000,000m3). Connecting the upper reservoir to the power station are three water conduits between 3,1003,600 feet (9401,100m) long. On the banks of the lower reservoir, the Bath County pumped storage power station can be found nestling in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains in the US state of Virginia. The Bath County Pumped Storage Station, tucked away off a winding road in the northwest corner of the county near the West Virginia line, is the most powerful pumped storage station in the world with the ability to hold approximately 20 billion gallons of water and push 7.4 billion gallons of water to create energy. The station consists of two large reservoirs. ABSTRACT:. The upper reservoir on Little Back Creek has a surface area of 265 acres (107ha) and storage capacity of 35,599 acre-feet (43,911,000m3). Find out more about Pumped Storage at Stantec. The 3,000 MW facility in Bath County, Virginia, has been in operation since 1985. stored water can be used to generate electricity when it is most valuable, and increase grid reliability by generating almost immediately if another power plant trips offline Many of the construction workers were expected to live in Highland County, which would receive no increased property tax revenues because the project was located south of the county boundary in Bath County. Allegheny merged with FirstEnergy in 2011. [10] Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Vital to grid reliability, today, the U.S. pumped storage hydropower fleet includes about 22 gigawatts of electricity-generating capacity and 550 gigawatt-hours of energy storage with facilities in every region of the country. The power grid will send energy into the electric generators at the station. In operation since 1985, the Bath County station is capable of powering about 750,000 homes. At the time, the Federal government still regulated the price of natural gas. Visitors may also park at the closed entrance gate and walk into the park during the off-season. Once the upper reservoir has emptied, the turbines need to be reversed to pump water uphill and "recharge the battery."8. Source: ESRI, ArcGIS Online. However, since water is pumped between the reservoirs equally, the only water taken from these creeks now that the reservoirs are full is to replace the water lost to evaporation. Update now. Bill Mitchell is operations and plant manager at the Bath County pumped hydro storage plant. The upper basin of the Bath County pumped storage power station is more than a square kilometer in size and contains almost 14 million cubic meters of water. The Bath County Pumped Storage Station does not use fossil fuels to produce electricity, so it does not add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The water flows drops 1,262 feet from the upper to the lower reservoir. For a period of nearly 20 years, the pumped storage power plant in Bath County, Virginia, USA was the largest of its kind. Energy, 243 (2022), Article 123061. Back Creek should receive a minimum of 10cfs. Probably no other storage solution has the track record of Pumped-Storage Hydropower. This construction increases the maximum capacity of the turbines to a total of 530 megawatts - an increase of almost 25 percent. 600, one north and one south of the entrance to the recreation area. The dam was completed in 1985 and upgrades were added in 2009. Construction of Gathright Dam was complicated by the karst geology, and extensive grouting was required to seal leaks in the limestone bedrock. Water flow when generating is 13.5 million gallons per minute. The proposed Southwest Virginia site would be considerably smaller than the Bath County site, Adkins said. Water is released from the upper reservoir during periods of high demand and is used to generate electricity. WARM SPRINGS, Va. The 3,000-megawatt pumped storage station in Bath County, Virginia, similar to one proposed for Southwest Virginia is the largest of its kind in the United States. The system also requires power as it pumps water back into the upper reservoir (recharge). The Bath County Pumped Storage Station is a pumped storage hydroelectric power plant, which is described as the "largest battery in the world", with a maximum generation capacity of 3,003 MW, an average of 2,772 MW, and a total storage capacity of 24,000 MWh. Construction would result in 3,000 jobs and 50 would be employed when the new site is operating, according to Dominion. Dominion filed a preliminary permit application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Sept. 6, identifying a potential site in Tazewell County on land it already owns. One potential customer was Appalachian Power, which in 2021 was seeking suppliers to provide electricity from renewable resources.14, the water that flows into the two reservoirs of the Bath County Pumped Storage Station ultimately flows down the James River to the Chesapeake Bay The price of a kilowatt-hour of electricity sold in the late afternoon is high. A fishing habitat was created downstream of the facility. The conduits each lead to a 990 feet (300m) shaft which bifurcates into two penstocks (for a total of six) before reaching the turbines. Water is released from the upper reservoir during periods of high demand and is used to generate electricity. The biggest challenge in all of this was the transportation of the approximately 100-ton head covers which were divided into two parts. Dominion Energy's Bath County Pumped Storage Station in Virginia is not only the largest pumped hydro facility, it's the "world's largest battery.". It moves through three tunnels or "penstocks" carved through Little Mountain, which separates Little Back Creek and Back Creek. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. When demand is low, water is pumped from the lower reservoir to the upper one. The Bath County Pumped Storage Station is a pumped storage hydroelectric power plant, which is described as the "largest battery in the world",[2] with a maximum generation capacity of 3,003 MW,[3] an average of 2,772 MW,[2] and a total storage capacity of 24,000 MWh. This project consists of a 3GW Pumped Hydro storage plant in Virginia that pumps water to an elevated reservoir at night and lets it run back down to generate electricity during the day. When generating power, the water flow can be as much as 13.5million US gallons (51,000m3) per minute (850m3/s). What makes this different from other hydroelectric dams is that during times of low demand, power is taken from coal, nuclear, and other power plants and is used to pump water from the lower to the upper reservoir. They were labelled as "exotic" and not considered to be viable alternatives, reflecting the technological capabilities and economics of the time.

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