The current mechanical design of the counter rotating RPT was created using the CAD software PTC Creo Parametric. This design will be tested in the experiment and later validated in the CFD. With the help of two bellows couplings, a possible misalignment between the motor shaft and the drive shaft can be compensated. The torque […]

In WP3, the Power Take-Off (PTO) and machine-side control are studied and designed. One part of this work package deals with rotor fatigue. One of the overarching aims of the ALPHEUS project is to show the viability of using low head pumped hydro to improve the stability of the grid. This is done by regulating […]

The prototype was built at Chalmers University of Technology by Petter Miltén under the supervision of Prof. Valery Chernoray. Video courtesy to Petter Miltén. Positive displacement reversible pump-turbine research model running in a pump mode. This model is being used to validate Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) being undertaken by Pal-Tore Storli and Luiz Henrique Accorsi Gans at the […]

The paper presented at the IAHR conferences ‘Numerical Analysis of an Initial Design of a Counter-Rotating Pump-Turbine’ has been published by IOPscience. The paper has been written by Jonathan Fahlbeck, Håkan Nilsson, Saeed Salehi, Mehrdad Zangeneh and Melvin Joseph. What’s Inside? Renewable sources of energy are on the rise and will continue to increase the coming decades. A common problem […]

Jonathan Fahlbeck*, Håkan Nilsson and Saeed Salehi released a new publication on the flow characteristics of preliminary shutdown and startup sequences for a model counter-rotating pump-turbine. Pumped Hydropower Storage (PHS) is the maturest and most economically viable technology for storing energy and regulating the electrical grid on a large scale. Due to the growing amount of […]

We would like to thank you all for your participation and contributions to the ALPHEUS Project meeting last Wednesday. The Consortium meeting had provided an opportunity for an update on the whole project: highlights per work package, experiments, project planning… Although the pandemic still forced us to organize the meeting online, it was good to […]

The ALPHEUS’ project WP2 involves the design and manufacture of a pump/turbine runner that can work in low head conditions and with high round-trip efficiency. Within the project there are several partners from European universities, a company (Advanced Design Technology Ltd.) and a research organization (IHE Delft). The proposal of the project describes briefly all […]

The growing share of intermittent renewable energy sources are creating challenges for grid stability. Energy storage is now becoming an important topic of research to ensure future growth of renewable energy. Reversible pump/turbine technology (RPT) is one of the key areas of research. But many existing RPTs require high head reservoirs which limits application to […]

Last week, Jonathan Fahlbeck, PhD Student working on the project, had the honour to represent ALPHEUS project at the 30th IAHR Symposium on Hydraulic Machinery and Systems. The presentation was on ‘Numerical analysis of an initial design of a counter-rotating pump-turbine‘. A paper of the work will be published later by the IOP Conference Series. The ALPHEUS project […]

The paper: The Contribution of Low‐head Pumped Hydro Storage to a successful Energy Transition (available here) presented at the virtual 19th Wind Integration Workshop (11 – 12 November 2020) was chosen among the best 10 papers of the whole RE Grid Integration Week 2020. The Wind Integration Workshop was designed for power system operators, transmission and […]