Towards the integration of distributed renewables: Operation analysis of pumped storage system under off-design condition based on CFD

Hongyu Guan, Xiuxing Yin and Wei Jiang

Applied Energy, 2024, vol. 355, issue C, No S0306261923015817

Abstract: Pumped storage plants are increasingly developing to cope with the rapid growth of renewable energy production. Micro-pumped storage (MPS) system is a new storage strategy for distributed energy integration. Centrifugal pump or axial pump replaces conventional pump turbines in this pumped storage system to ensure economic convenience and system flexibility. However, when MPS works in the generating operation mode, the limited high-efficiency range will result in complex hydrodynamic behavior and stability issues under off-design conditions due to renewable integration. At present, the instability mechanism of MPS under off-design conditions is not clear enough, and there is a lack of excellent research methods to analyze this problem. Therefore, this paper firstly introduces the entropy production theory considering the wall effect for visualizing the energy loss. Then the relationship between hydraulic performance and unsteady flow characteristics is established based on the loss characteristics. The results show that the entropy production theory with customized wall functions has higher accuracy and advantages in energy loss analysis compared to the default wall functions. Under partial loading conditions, the spatial-temporal instability of the flow separation point causes a rotating stall within the impeller, which in turn leads to destabilization and a significant reduction in hydraulic performance. Under overload conditions, despite slight changes in hydraulic performance, the most significant pressure fluctuation is six times stronger than the best efficiency point.

Keywords: Distributed renewables; Pumped storage system; Off-design condition; Entropy production; Rotating stall (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.122217

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