Kruonis Pumped Storage Plant
Encyclopedia
Kruonis Pumped Storage Plant (the KPSP) is located near Kruonis
Kruonis
Kruonis is a small town, located east of Kaunas, in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 726. The only in the Baltic States Kruonis Pumped Storage Plant is situated north of Kruonis.-References:...
, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, 34 km (21.1 mi) east of Kaunas
Kaunas
Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...
. Its main purpose is to provide a spinning reserve of the power system, to regulate the load curve of the power system 24 hours a day. It operates in conjunction with the Kaunas Hydroelectric Power Plant
Kaunas Hydroelectric Power Plant
The Kaunas Hydroelectric Power Plant, located on the Nemunas River about southeast of downtown Kaunas, Lithuania, was completed in 1960. Its dam created the Kaunas Reservoir. Owned by Lietuvos Energija, it operates in conjunction with the Kruonis Pumped Storage Plant.The plant, which has a...
. During periods of low demand, usually at night, Kruonis PSHP is operated in pump mode, and, using cheap surplus energy, raises water from lower - Kaunas reservoir to upper one. The station is designed to have an installed capacity of 1,600 MW but only four 225 MW generators are currently operational. With fully filled upper reservoir the plant can generate 900 MW for about 12 hours. To liquidate the capacity deficit in the event of the disconnection of the Ignalina nuclear power plant
Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant
The Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant is a closed two-unit RBMK-1500 nuclear power station in Visaginas, Lithuania. It was named after the nearby city of Ignalina...
, the Kruonis Pumped Storage Plant generators are automatically launched into operation.
The KPSP uses hydro-resources of artificial water pools existing at different geographical levels.
The electricity from this power plant is supplied to 330 kV electricity line between Elektrėnai
Elektrenai
Elektrėnai is a city of about 14,000 inhabitants in Lithuania; since 2000 it is the capital of the Elektrėnai municipality. It is situated between the two largest cities in Lithuania – Vilnius and Kaunas.-Name:Elektrėnai is the Lithuanian name of the city...
, where the largest fossil fuel plant in Lithuania
Elektrenai Power Plant
The Elektrėnai Power Plant or Lithuania Power Plant is an 1,800-MW electrical generating station near Elektrėnai, Lithuania, about west of Lithuania's capital, Vilnius. It is operated by Lietuvos Elektrinė, a subsidiary of Lietuvos Energija....
is operating, and Kaunas.
During a surplus of electricity generation output, the KPSP operates at pump mode and uses the surplus electricity to pump water from the lower pool to the upper pool.
During an electricity output deficit, the Kruonis PSP operates as a regular hydro power plant, letting water flow from the upper pool to the lower pool and in this way generating additional electricity. With fully filled upper reservoir the plant can generate 900 MW for about 12 hours. Kruonis Plant is the only pumped-storage station
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity is a type of hydroelectric power generation used by some power plants for load balancing. The method stores energy in the form of water, pumped from a lower elevation reservoir to a higher elevation. Low-cost off-peak electric power is used to run the pumps...
in the Baltic states
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
.
Basic technical data:
- Designed capacity of the pumped storage plant: 1 600 MW (8 units, 200 MW each)
- Installed capacity of the pumped storage plant: 900 MW (4 units, 225 MW each)
Turbine–pump
- Type - Radial Axis
- Runner diameter 6,3 m
- Capacity at turbine mode 205 MW
- Capacity at pump mode 217 MW
- 150 rev/min.
- Rated discharge at turbine mode 226 m³/s
- Rated discharge at pump mode 189 m³/s
- Nominal pressure 100 m
Engine–generator
- Type - Synchronic vertical
- Capacity 236 MW
- Generator voltage 15, 75 kV
- Weight 1120 t
Reverse channel
- Width of bottom 189 m
- Width of water surface 250 m
- Depth 10 m
Pipelines
- Length 840 m
- Internal diameter 7,5 m
- External diameter 8,4 m
- Number of poles 2800 ( diam. 1 m)
Upper pool
- Area 3.06 km²
- Dam length 6,3 km
- Perimeter of pool 6,8 km
- Water level: 140,0 to 153,5 m alt.
- Bottom 138 m alt.
- Total pool volume 48,000,000 m³
- Payload pool volume 41,000,000 m³
Lower pool
- Length 127 m
- Width 70 m
- Height 50 m