Pumped Storage - Tractebel - Centrale hydroélectrique de Coo Trois Ponts.

Pumped Storage

Powering Tomorrow with Pumped Storage Hydropower

Eric Landragin
Eric Landragin
Business Manager - Water
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The future of clean energy depends on scalable storage.

In the race toward decarbonisation, Pumped Storage Hydropower (PSH) is foundational to tomorrow’s power systems. It’s now a proven and scalable technology, able to store large amounts of electricity and release it on demand.

As a global leader in PSH engineering, Tractebel has more than 50 years of experience and involvement in many of the most iconic related projects worldwide. We bring cutting-edge expertise in all technical aspects of pumped storage — from early-stage studies to detailed engineering and project execution.

Our multidisciplinary teams have mastered PSH configurations — closed-loop and open-loop systems, surface and underground plants — and work closely with developers, utilities, equipment suppliers and EPC contractors to design robust, optimised and future-proof solutions.

Even more, Tractebel clients trust us to ensure they successfully navigate regulatory, environmental and complex grid-integration challenges. Our approach is designed to ensure project bankability and risk mitigation in ways that deliver long-term value.

Pumped Storage solutions

Your opportunities

  • Develop new large-scale pumped-storage projects to ensure grid stability, frequency regulation, and energy shifting for renewable integration

  • Secure end-to-end engineering support from feasibility to commissioning and beyond

  • Optimise layout, hydraulic design, and equipment configuration, surface or underground pumped-storage schemes

  • Leverage pumped storage to support hybrid renewable systems and strengthen grid flexibility

  • Manage environmental, social, and permitting challenges across jurisdictions

  • Implement detailed and constructible designs aligned with fast-track procurement strategies

  • Rehabilitate or modernise existing PSH infrastructure to extend lifetime, increase power output, or adapt to new demand profiles

  • Coordinate multiple interfaces in large, multi-contract or cross-border PSH developments

Our value

  • Decades of experience in PSH planning, design and construction supervision, with proven methodologies across all phases — from site selection to commissioning and operational support

  • Full lifecycle services including pre-feasibility, detailed design, procurement support, construction, commissioning supervision and operational advisory

  • In-house multidisciplinary expertise covering geology, geotechnical, civil, hydraulic, electro-mechanical, and control systems engineering, including complex tunnelling and cavern design

  • Advanced techno-economic analysis and system integration studies, ensuring compatibility with intermittent generation

  • Dedicated E&S specialists and global regulatory knowledge embedded in technical workflows

  • Specialised know-how in refurbishment projects: life assessment of existing assets, unit replacement, storage volume expansion, civil rehabilitation, power capacity upgrades, and integration with digital asset management

  • Strong track record supporting IPPs, utilities, and public clients with technical due diligence, feasibility studies, CAPEX/OPEX optimisation and stakeholder engagement

Digital Solutions

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