Quarry Battery Company Ltd. has engaged Fichtner GmbH & Co KG together with Fichtner Consulting Engineers Ltd. to support their 100 MW Pumped Storage Hydro development in Wales. The scheme foresees the connection of two disused slate quarries with depths of some 50 m providing storage volumes of ca. 1.1 mil. m3 each by waterways and a powerhouse with variable speed pump-turbines, which will have an installed generating and pumping capacity of 100 MW and 120 MW, respectively and a gross head varying between 186 and 292 m. The quarries will be reshaped and sealed to achieve stability and water tightness. In order to enlarge the storage volumes, rockfill dams with surface sealings are designed at the lower parts of the quarries’ rims. The paper will address the design of sealing elements of the dams and quarries, incl. connections and interfaces. For the quarries, the requirement for sealings is evaluated from geotechnical investigations. The project was already consented and after an early engagement of contractors and suppliers, the FEED Design was updated.
The Quarry Battery/Glyn Rhonwy PSH will help to achieve a net zero carbon world by providing storage to cover the gap between supply and demand and stabilizing the network frequency in an electricity market more and more characterized by renewable energy sources.
