Design of pumped water storage solar–hydropower system with surface water source pumping mechanism

In this paper, design of pumped water storage solar–hydro-power system with surface water source pumping mechanism is presented. The design considered a 750 kVA (which is 600 kW) power system that can run for 24 hours. Hence, the load profile consists of a 750 kVA by 24 hours per day electrical load which gave daily energy demand of daily energy of 14,400 kWh. The design was conducted using 21 years (2003 to 2023) meteorological dataset of the case study site at Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU) main campus at Ikot Akpadem with the latitude and longitude of 4.6214 and 7.7639 respectively. Detailed descriptive statistical analysis of the dataset was done. The design results show that the water storage capacity of is required for the 3 days of power sutonomy. About 50 water pumps each reated at 59.797 kW  (approximately 60 kW) are used for the water pump while 10 water pumps each reated at 2989.827 kW  (approximately3 kW) are used for the top up water segment. The hydro power with water top up has effiecncy of 0.623 (or 62.3%) and requires 23111.570 kWh of energy every day from the solar power system. The solar power is designed with the mean solar radiation value of 6.16534 and daily energy demand of 23,111.57 kWh which is the energy demand form the hydro power segment. The PV power rating is 5,174.29 kW. With 200 Wp PV module, a total of 25,871.46 PV modules were required to supply the needed power. The daily energy yield of the PV array was 31,901.29 kWh and the operating efficiency of the PV system was 0.72447 (or 72.4%). The ideas presented in this are useful for the design of modern solar hydro power plants that can be installed and sustained even in areas with water shortages.