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Romania to revive Tarnita-Lapustesti pumped hydropower plant project
The company that manages the Romanian state’s participation in energy companies, SAPE, is carrying out consultations until August 8 in order to eventually contract a feasibility study on the Tarnita-Lapustesti reversible, pumped hydropower plant, the Ministry of Energy announced.
The feasibility study will be contracted to establish solutions for the construction of a pumped storage hydroelectric power plant with a capacity between 500 and 1,000 MW. The project is particularly important for accommodating intermittent energy production capacities such as wind and solar.
The feasibility study will contain the feasible solutions for the construction of the plant, and the cost-benefit analyses carried out for the solutions proposed, elaborated in the existing legislative and technical-economic conditions.
The study will also include the urbanism certificate, the conforming approvals for ensuring utilities, as well as specific opinions, agreements and studies, as appropriate, depending on the specifics of the investment objective, including the one for connection to the electricity transmission network and the environmental approval.
In 2019, the government approved one of the oldest energy projects initiated by Nicolae Ceausescu since the 1970s, a project relaunched, but not implemented by all governments after the fall of communism.
Hidro Tarnita SA company was set up in 2013 to implement the project, initially intended with the participation of companies from China.
A feasibility study carried out in 2019 estimated the needed investments at €1.15bn, the execution of the works being foreseen to take place over seven years with commissioning in two stages.
In the summer of 2021, four South Korean companies showed interest in getting involved in the resuscitation of the energy project to build and operate the 1,000 MW pumped storage hydropower plant.
The Society for the Administration of Energy Participations (SAPE) published on last Friday the announcement regarding the start of the market consultation process in connection with the Tarnita-Lapstesti Pumped Storage Hydropower Plant project, a process that will last until August 8.
According to the cited source, the opportunity and necessity of the Tarnita - Lapstesti hydroelectric plant project with storage and pumping (CHEAP) is based on the following advantages and functions ensured for the national energy system: increasing the degree of safety of the SEN in the context of operation in UCTE; the transfer of electrical energy from the load void to the peak; electricity market arbitration; short-term damage reserve; fast tertiary adjustment reserve and slow tertiary adjustment reserve; frequency-power adjustment; provision of reactive reserve and voltage regulation in SEN; exchange through interconnection within UCTE; resumption of SEN - black start capability, the ability to restore network interconnections in the event of a power outage; the implementation and management of SEN of intermittent renewable sources of electricity, ensuring optimal conditions for the installation of a power greater than 4000 MW in wind power plants.
"The feasibility study will be contracted to establish the solutions for achieving a pumped storage hydroelectric plant with a power between 500 - 1,000 MW. It will contain the feasible solutions for the construction of the plant, the cost-benefit analyzes carried out for the presented solutions, developed in the existing legislative and technical and economic conditions, the urban planning certificate, the appropriate notices for the provision of utilities, as well as notices, agreements and specific studies, as the case may be, depending on the specifics of the investment objective, including the one for connecting to the electricity transmission network and the notice of the environment", the press release also reads.
(Photo:https://energie.gov.ro/)