Improvement of demand response using mixed pumped storage hydro plant

Demand response plays a key role in balancing the demand and supply in an electricity grid. Though the demand response measures implemented with industrial and large commercial consumers are very effective, some alternate solutions may be required in the case of systems predominated by domestic loads. Pumped storage schemes (PSS) are widely used for Demand Side Management (DSM) applications due to their high efficiency and quick response rate. But PSS often become unavailable if the environmental issues are considered. A practical method is to upgrade an existing hydro plant to a mixed pumped storage plant. This paper proposes a method to determine the optimum capacity of a mixed pumped storage unit/units which can be augmented to an existing hydro plant. In addition the proposed approach can be easily extended for scheduling applications in deregulated environment.