Underground Pumped Storage Hydropower Case Studies in Belgium: Perspectives and Challenges

To avoid the geographical and topographical prerequisites of the conventional pumped hydro energy storage, the use of underground cavities as water reservoirs allows countries without steep topography, such as Belgium, to increase the potential of the energy storage capacity. Belgium abounds in disused mines and quarries convertible into water basins. In this article, two Belgian case studies are presented and discussed for their singularity. A slate quarry in Martelange is discussed in technical aspects proposing three operating scenarios. Moreover, a preliminary economic analysis of the underground pumped storage system and a greenhouse gas emission evaluation for the storage system's lifetime are presented. The analysis for a 100 MW power plant estimates a total initial investment of over 12 million euros and two million of CO2 avoided over its lifetime. This article also proposes the use of the coal mine 500 m deep of Perronnes-lez-Binche. The mine representation discussed here offers a high energy capacity, but the substantial head drop (from about 500 to 200 m) challenges the selection of the hydraulic turbomachinery. A 1D simulation computed in SIMSEN draws out the behaviour of the unusual hydraulic configuration of turbines in series.