The company has said it will examine commercial, technological, environmental and regulatory conditions for the new plants.
The feasibility study will focus on thorough assessments of three areas in Sweden and will explore whether building new pumped hydro storages fulfils the company’s criteria of economic viability and environmental requirements while contributing to the security of energy supply for the society.
The geographic focus of the feasibility study are in Lekstjärnen, next to Fortum’s hydropower plant in Trängslet in Dalarna County, and Bastvålen and Höljessjön in Värmland County.
Currently, Fortum operates three pumped storage power plants; Kymmen, Letten and Eggsjön in Värmland, Sweden, with an installed capacity of 89,5MW. The future potential power increase from pumped storage plants will be analysed in the feasibility study.
According to Fortum in a release, the objectives of the feasibility study are in line with Fortum’s strategy to provide reliable clean energy and drive decarbonisation in industries in the Nordics, and to contribute to a successful energy transition which supports the competitiveness of the Nordic region going forward.
The volatility in the power market will increase as the share of weather-dependent renewables increases in the energy system. The role of flexible solutions, such as flexible pumped hydro storage, will be crucial in an expanding energy system to meet the increasing electricity demand, balance the energy system and help mitigate short-term changes in demand.
Commenting was Mikael Lemström, EVP Fortum hydro: “Pumped hydro storage offers much-needed flexibility to the Nordic energy system and increases predictability for households and industries.
“Pumped hydro storage has the ability to both produce, store and consume electricity during long periods of time and in great amounts, reaching up to thousands of megawatts. Fortum owns and operates three pumped hydro storage plants in Sweden since years and we have deep in-house expertise in the technology.”
In Finland, Fortum’s associated company Kemijoki Oy is exploring pumped storage hydropower plants in northern Finland.
In total, between Finland and Sweden, Fortum has a total of 124 hydropower plants.
Earlier this month, advisory firm AFRY released the results of a study, conducted on behalf of the Swedish Association of Engineers, showing that Sweden has up to 4000MW of capacity to unlock from existing hydropower assets.
