In a recent months, pumped storage power plants have seen a significant increase in their contribution to the electricity generation mix in Spain. This phenomenon highlights some key aspects of the energy transition and how it is changing the landscape of the energy markets in Spain and Europe.
According to Red Eléctrica, between January and October 2023, pumped storage power plants produced a total of 4185 GWh of electricity, compared to 2929 GWh for the same period in 2022 and 2177 GWh in 2021. Since mid-2022, the historical production record for each month of the year has been exceeded virtually every month. So far in 2023, all months except February and October have set historical production records for that month of the year.
Pumped storage power plants generate electricity from reservoir water that has previously been pumped to an upper reservoir. To increase their electricity production, the plants have also significantly increased their consumption to pump water. During the first ten months of 2023, 6747 GWh of consumption by pumped storage power plants was registered, in contrast to 4683 GWh in the same months of 2022 and 3523 GWh in 2021.
Analogous to their production, the consumption of pumped-storage plants has registered records in practically every month of 2023 so far. At the moment, with two months left in the year, all months of 2023, except February and June, have been consumption records in their respective months.
