For whom the river flows: ambiguities of pumped storage hydropower in a neoliberalized era

Keywords: hydropower, renewable energy, sustainability
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 29

Abstract

Pumped storage hydropower (PSH), a type of electricity generation characterized by net negative electricity production, has been a mainstay of the U.S. electricity production mix for almost a century and is increasingly invoked by industry advocates and their allies as a solution to reducing the carbon emissions of the electricity sector and reducing global warming. Using the case of a large PSH plant in Western Massachusetts, this paper elucidates the instability and slow violence associated with the promotion of PSH for a stable, flexible and reliable electric grid. Originally intended to provide peaking power to complement base-load suppliers such as nuclear power, this paper finds that PSH continues to play this role as a balancer and peak producer, although now in restructured electricity markets where private companies are driven to produce profits in a globalized economy. Based on reports and interviews, I show that while the plant flexibly produces power to balance supply and demand on the electric grid and provides other grid services, it also simultaneously generates increasing imbalances in water levels in the Connecticut river that contribute to the locking in of physical and ecosystem degradation over time.