Power Stabilization System with Counter-Rotating Type Pump-Turbine Unit for Renewable Energy

Traditional type pumped storage system contributes to adjust the electric power unbalance between day and night, in general. The pump-turbine unit is prepared for the power stabilization system, in this serial research, to provide the constant power with good quality for the grid system, even at the suddenly fluctuating/turbulent output from renewable energies. In the unit, the angular momentum changes through the front impeller/runner must be the same as that through the rear impeller/runner, that is, the axial flow at the outlet should be the same to the axial flow at the inlet. Such flow conditions are advantageous to work at not only the pumping mode but also the turbine mode. This work discusses experimentally the performance of the unit, and verifies that this type unit is very effective to both operating modes.