Alperia has launched a project idea for the construction of a pumping station in Val d'Ultimo, near Pracupola and Santa Valburga. This pumped storage plant would fit perfectly into the existing infrastructure. The project idea consists of an underground connection between Lake Quaira (12.8 million cubic metres) and the Zoccolo reservoir (33 million cubic metres) along the left side of the Pracupola valley.

The system would allow energy to be stored when there is a surplus on the electricity grid and fed back into the grid when necessary. To this end, pumps transport water from the artificial lake of Zòccolo, the so-called lower reservoir, to the higher Lake Quaira, the upper reservoir. This occurs when there is a lot of electricity available. When availability is low, for example during peaks in demand or fluctuations in solar and wind energy production, the water is conveyed to the lower reservoir through a system of turbines and pipes. The turbines convert the kinetic energy of the water into electricity.

It is precisely this flexibility that characterises pumped storage power stations that is the key to security of electricity supply, which in future will be based on systems powered by renewable energies.

South Tyrol could thus make use of a new storage system, a “green battery”, capable of stabilising in a significant way