Candidate Sites for Pumped Hydroelectric Energy Storage System in Jordan

Renewable energy sources particularly wind energy is becoming immensely popular throughout the world. Jordan is one of the countries that are interested in increasing the integration level of the wind energy on the national electrical grid. The main drawback of wind power is its inherent variability and uncertainty of source making wind energy a difficult resource to dispatch. A Pumped Hydroelectric Energy Storage (PHES) system is considered to be an attractive alternative solution for load balancing and energy storage mainly with wind farms. The current research utilizes the existing dams in Jordan as lower basin and provides candidate locations for upper pumped storage basins in the vicinity of these dams without affecting their functionality. These upper basin are semi-natural basins with least amount of construction, i.e. relatively least construction cost. A location survey of the candidate sites in Jordan is conducted where the PHES can be implemented and operated in an efficient manner. Ten locations have been analyzed deeply in the location survey. The results show that six of them are successful candidates and appropriate locations to implement PHES system since they pass all PHES design requirements.