The contribution of wind-hydro pumped storage systems in meeting Lebanon's electricity demand

• Five sites were selected to implement wind turbines in Lebanon.
• The PHES could be implemented in two dams in Lebanon.
• The installation of PHES is most suitable in Chabrouh.
• The cost of electricity per kWh could be produced by wind turbines in Lebanon vary between 0.109 $/kWh and 0.044 $/kWh.
• We encourage the construction of wind farms in Lebanon completed with hydro storage.

Wind power technology is now a reliable electricity production system. It presents an economically attractive possible solution for the continuously increasing energy demand of Lebanon. However, the stochastic behavior of wind speed leads to significant disharmony between wind energy production and electricity demand. Hence, the prospect of creating a combined wind-hydro energy station is found to be a vital issue. This paper is an attempt to analyze the design of a pumping station and the performance of a hybrid wind-hydro power plant, in two dams in Lebanon (Quaraoun and Chabrouh), in order to choose the most suitable dam to store the energy surplus produced by wind power at night. An evaluation of the amount of water that could be pumped in both dams and the energy that could be produced from the stored electricity surplus are carried out in this paper, in order to select the most suitable dam to implement the hydro pumped storage power plant and store the electricity surplus. It is shown that the energy that could be produced in the dam of Chabrouh varies between 17 MWh and 698 MWh, while in the dam of Quaraoun is between 17 MWh and 768 MWh. An analysis of the cost of the energy produced by wind turbines per kWh and the produced water per m3 are carried out in this paper as well.