Our Projects.
Altura Group are developing a portfolio of pumped storage hydro projects that support the growing supply of renewable resources into the Australian energy market. Our projects are designed to provide energy to the national electricity grid, delivering energy at the times and locations it is needed most. At Altura Group, how we work is just as important as what we do. We value and respect our relationships with stakeholders and consider these to be central in all we do, working together to create a dialogue through the project planning phase, refining our projects that seek to accommodate key issues in a transparent way. Throughout project construction and the life of the project, our relationships with our stakeholders remain our first priority.
HOW PUMPED HYDRO WORKS
Pumped storage hydro facilities work by releasing water from the upper reservoir through the hydro-electric turbines, electricity is generated. The water is stored in the bottom reservoir ready to be pumped, constituting a closed cycle. When surplus electricity is being produced by the electricity grid (such as when there is excess solar or wind), the water is pumped from the lower reservoir to the upper reservoir using electricity from the grid. As more electricity is needed to pump the water up the hill than is produced by moving the water down the hill, the facility is a net consumer of electricity and therefore relies on the difference in the cost of electricity consumption and revenue from electricity generation to be viable. 
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The electricity market benefits of pumped hydro plants are in flattening the peaks and troughs of supply and demand, balancing the electricity network to cover peak demand times, whilst consuming electricity during times of generation surplus in the system.

There is a strong narrative in Australia around pumped hydro, with governments and regulatory planners recognising the benefits of fast start, dispatchable capacity, particularly for intra-day energy shifting of variable renewable energy.

Modern Pumped Hydro plant is much more flexible than the original fleet built in Australia, capable of very fast ramp rates, providing energy traders with the ideal tool to manage wholesale market exposure.

PUMPED HYDRO & RENEWABLES FIRMING

PHES becomes increasingly effective in grids with significant penetration of renewable energy technologies, to balance times of low and high electricity supply from variable intermittent generators and to assist grid frequency control and voltage regulation. This is increasingly relevant in regions where intermittent renewables (large scale wind and solar farms) produce a large proportion of the region’s electricity consumption. This significant percentage drives volatility of prices (both high and low) and contributes to system reliability and security issues associated with its intermittency.

Our projects are located in priority Renewable Energy Zones across the National Electricity Market, with access to high quality variable renewable resources, transmission capacity and load, which together with the high-quality nature of each project, will provide low cost flexible storage to manage intra-day volatility and resilience to energy market transformation over coming decades.