Análisis preliminar de refuncionalización de centrales hidroeléctricas en la provincia de Córdoba

Abstract

For the province of Cordoba it is of particular interest to consider turbine-pumped systems to store energy on a large scale and to be able to integrate with other renewable energies. This is possible due to the presence of good closures, reservoirs and important slopes due to the proximity of the very special mountainous area called Sierras Pampeanas.

This article applies the main factors that condition the possible refunctionalization, adapting the civil works of conventional hydroelectric power plants to reversible pumped-turbine systems. These factors are the criteria in a process of “filtering” on the hydraulic exploitations of the province of Cordoba, obtaining in this way a preliminary panorama on which plants it would be technically and economically pre-easible to consider a refunctionalization.

Two main factors to be considered for these possible refunctionalizations were defined: those related to the civil works and those related to the electromechanical design of the power plant. The fact that the plants already have an upstream and a downstream reservoir was an excluding criterion at the beginning of the selection process, since even if there is a feasible reservoir for the construction of a reservoir, the territory is already largely occupied by other land uses, in addition to making the project much more expensive.

The analysis showed that the Cassaffousth, Reolín, Los Molinos I, La Viña and Fitz Simons plants are the ones that a priori present the most favorable conditions for refunctionalization.