Ben-Eliezer signs license for pumped storage power station

At peak time, during the day, the water flows back into the lower reservoir and turns a turbine in the process, producing electricity.

By EHUD ZION WALDOKS
reading power station 88 (photo credit: )
reading power station 88
(photo credit: )
National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer granted a conditional license to Clal Industries and Investments on Monday to build a pumped storage power station. A pumped storage station pumps water when electricity costs are low (such as at night) from a lower reservoir to a higher one. At peak time, during the day, the water flows back into the lower reservoir and turns a turbine in the process, producing electricity. The new 220-MW station will be built near the Nesher quarry next to Haifa. It is scheduled for completion by 2015. Ben-Eliezer granted the first pumped storage station license about two weeks ago to P.S.P. Investments for a 300-MW station to be built at Ma'aleh Gilboa. Ben-Eliezer said he was hoping for 800 MW from pumped storage plants by the middle of the next decade. The Clal license is conditional - if the operator meets all the conditions, it will receive a permanent license. Clal Energy CEO Dan Vardi said it had not been decided what type of water - fresh or treated sewage - would be used to meet the station's 1.3 million-cu.m. requirements.