France’s Alstom will build and operate Israel’s first pumped storage power plant, under two agreements worth a combined €120mn with local firm PSP Investment. The 300MW Gilboa plant will be based around two pump-turbines and will be built 60km east of Haifa for start-up in 2018. Besides building the plant, Alstom will operate and maintain it for 18 years.
Alstom said on 10 January that the plant will help to improve supply reliability by using energy from other power stations during off-peak hours to transfer water to a high reservoir. Stored water is later released to the turbines for generating electricity to cover temporary demand surges. (CONTINUED - 273 WORDS)
