Coordinated short-term dispatch for variable-speed pumped storage units, wind, solar and data center hybrid system

Abstract

Seawater and mine pumped storage hydropower (PSH) based on variable-speed PSH units are becoming the mainstay of sustainable PSH development. These unique operational environments of these PSH offer potential complementary scenarios for data center (DC) constrained by energy consumption. For instance, Google is actively integrating seawater PSH can be integrated with offshore wind power to support the offshore DC that Google is actively developing, where seawater cooling utilization can significantly reduce energy consumption for cooling. In response to these potential applications, this work establishes models for variable-speed PSH units and DCs; then we conduct four case studies to preliminarily investigate the feasibility of complementary operations between variable-speed PSH and integrated wind and solar power with DCs. The results indicate that this emerging operational model can enhance the average economic benefits of the hybrid system by 5.74%, which provide valuable insights for the sustainable development of both PSH and DCs.