The Żarnowiec Pumped Storage Power Station is a

pumped-storage Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH), or pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES), is a type of hydroelectric energy storage used by electric power systems for load balancing. The method stores energy in the form of gravitational potenti ...

power station located about south of

Żarnowiec Żarnowiec ( csb, Żarnówc, German ''Zarnowitz'') is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Krokowa, within Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies close to Żarnowieckie Lake, approximately west of Krokowa ...

, in

Puck County __NOTOC__ Puck County ( pl, powiat pucki, csb, pùcczi pòwiat) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Pomeranian Voivodeship, northern Poland, on the Baltic coast. The ''powiat'' of this name existed in the his ...

, northern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

. It was constructed between 1973 and 1983 and underwent a modernisation between 2007 and 2011, with the upper reservoir reconstructed in 2006. With a capacity of 680 MW, it is the largest hydroelectric power station in Poland. It uses four 170 MW

Francis pump-turbine The Francis turbine is a type of water turbine. It is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow concepts. Francis turbines are the most common water turbine in use today, and can achieve over 95% efficiency. The process ...

s to send water from its lower reservoir,

Lake Żarnowiec Lake Żarnowiec is located in the Pomorze Voivodeship. It's 7.6 km long, 2.6 km wide and has a depth of 16 m. The river Piaśnica cuts through it. The Żarnowiec Nuclear Power Plant was supposed to be built next to it. It now serves as ...

, up to an upper reservoir for storage. During periods of high power demand, the water is released back down to the turbines to produce power. Water is pumped back up during periods of low power demand, such as night time. The power station was originally intended to be a

load balancer In computing, load balancing is the process of distributing a set of tasks over a set of resources (computing units), with the aim of making their overall processing more efficient. Load balancing can optimize the response time and avoid unevenl ...

for

Żarnowiec Nuclear Power Plant The Żarnowiec Nuclear Power Plant ( pl, Elektrownia Jądrowa Żarnowiec) was to be the first nuclear power plant in Poland.''A Country Study: Poland'', Library of Congress, Call Number DK4040 .P57 199/ref> The construction was cancelled due ...

which was supposed to be constructed on the opposite side of Lake Żarnowiec.

References

Pumped-storage hydroelectric power stations in Poland Energy infrastructure completed in 1983 Puck County 1983 establishments in Poland {{Poland-struct-stub

See also

References