Pumped storage and cost saving

Claude Crampes and Michel Moreaux

Energy Economics, 2010, vol. 32, issue 2, 325-333

Abstract: The pump storage technique allows the use of cheap thermal electricity at periods of low demand to restore water resources that can be used to generate electricity at periods of peak demand. When the thermal plant and the hydro plant are managed by the same operator, the two plants are used in an efficient way to substitute low cost fuel for high cost fuel. The paper first analyzes the efficient use of the technology when the outputs at each period are given. We determine the frontier between the storage and no-storage solutions and its sensibility to cost variations. We then determine the optimal dispatch given the intertemporal preferences of electricity consumers. The model gives emphasis to the economic driver of the technology that is the net social gain from transferring social surplus from off peak to peak period.

Keywords: Water; resource; Pumping; Hydroelectricity; Cost; saving (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (45)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140-9883(09)00187-X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:32:y:2010:i:2:p:325-333

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Economics is currently edited by R. S. J. Tol, Beng Ang, Lance Bachmeier, Perry Sadorsky, Ugur Soytas and J. P. Weyant

More articles in Energy Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().