Unequally Distributed Pumped Micro-Storage Hydropower System
Ala A. HUSSEIN, Gaydaa ALZOHBI
Abstract. Pumped storage hydropower (PSH) is a mature and widely deployed technology for large-scale energy storage, yet its efficiency drops considerably when operating at light load. As modern power systems continue to shift toward decentralized generation and micro-grids, storage solutions that perform efficiently over a wide load range are increasingly needed. This paper presents a 100-kW unequally distributed pumped micro-storage hydropower (PMSH) system designed for residential and micro-grid applications. The proposed configuration consists of parallel AC-coupled units rated at 50 kW, 25 kW, two 10 kW units, and one 5 kW unit, allowing individual machines to operate close to their rated power across varying demand levels. The results show that, unlike centralized and equally distributed systems whose efficiency declines sharply below approximately 40% load, the proposed system maintains a nearly constant round-trip efficiency of about 90% from 5% to 100% of rated load. In addition, the system achieves maximum modularity and reliability indices of 1.0, compared to 0.05 and 0.2, respectively, for a centralized architecture. These results demonstrate that the proposed PMSH system offers a practical and efficient energy storage solution for small-scale, decentralized power systems. Derivation of the proposed system followed by results and analysis are presented.
Keywords
Energy Storage, Hydropower, Micro-Storage, Optimization
Published online 4/25/2026, 6 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Ala A. HUSSEIN, Gaydaa ALZOHBI, Unequally Distributed Pumped Micro-Storage Hydropower System, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 64, pp 30-35, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904091-4
The article was published as article 4 of the book Energy Futures
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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