Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumped Storage

Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumped Storage (LEAPS) was a proposed $1.1 billion 500 megawatts (670,000 hp) pumped-storage hydroelectricity power project which would have provided power-on-demand for the California electric power grid, and its accompanying transmission lines project.

The proposed project was blocked by a decision of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in July 2011.^[1]

History

On August 6, 2007 the Nevada Hydro Company announced its agreement with Morgan Stanley Commodities to create a new corporate entity, LEAPS Hydro, LLC, for the purposes of building, owning and operating the $1.1 billion Lake Elsinore Advanced Pump Storage (LEAPS) project and the accompanying transmission lines to provide increased energy reliability to Southern California.^[2]

All pump/storage power plants require a large body of water, like Lake Elsinore, and nearby mountains where a relatively large reservoir exists or can be built. In the case of the LEAPS Project, the plan is to build a new reservoir in the mountains west of Lake Elsinore. The reservoir would have a surface area of approximately 100 acres (40 ha) and it would be formed in a natural canyon by constructing a 180-foot (55 m) high dam. The lake and reservoir would be interconnected by one or two large pipes 12 to 20 feet (3.7 to 6.1 m) in diameter.^[3]

Two projects in one

LEAPS is a joint effort of Nevada Hydro and the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, and comprises a pumped-storage facility above Lake Elsinore that would generate hydroelectricity to be transmitted to the state's power grid along the proposed power lines. It would also store electricity produced during off-peak hours that could be used during the height of the day, when electricity demand peaks.

The power lines would connect the Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric Company's portions of the grid.

Pumped storage will help the state better capture electricity produced by solar or wind farms during off-peak hours...The state energy commission listed LEAPS as its second-most-important project statewide in a recent report, but recommended the approval process for the power lines be expedited and treated separately from the pumped storage."^[4]

References