Iberdrola España has commissioned the first pumping station set at Valdecañas, in Cáceres, Extremadura, which has a total capacity of 225 MW and includes a hybridized battery of 15 MW and 7.5 MWh of stored energy.
The battery plus hydroelectric sets increases the storage in the Tajo system up to 210 GWh. Set 1 is the first of the plant’s three sets in which technological improvements are being implemented that will allow “full recovery” of this facility’s pumping capacity, Iberdrola España said. In addition, water quality is expected to improve due to the increase in the flows circulating through the reservoirs.
Commissioning this plant will help reduce CO2 emissions by 200,000 tons a year, the company said. It is also creating 165 direct jobs and another 500 indirect jobs.
Iberdrola España also noted the “minimal impact” the commissioning had during its execution, since the scope was exclusively electromechanical and didn’t require any civil infrastructure to be built, as it took advantage of existing structures and the Valdecañas and Torrejón-Tajo reservoirs, without varying levels of operation. No new transmission lines needed to be laid either, as the existing ones are being used.
Iberdrola Españ recently commissioned the pumped storage projects of the Tâmega, Portugal, Valparaíso, Zamora, Santiago Sil – Xares, Galicia and Torrejón, Cáceres hydroelectric power plants. Iberdrola España currently has 18 pumped-storage hydroelectric power plants with a total installed capacity of 6,000 MW.
