Pumped Storage - Tractebel - Centrale hydroélectrique de Coo Trois Ponts.

Pumped Storage

Powering tomorrow with Pumped Storage Hydropower

Eric Landragin
Eric Landragin
Unit Director - PSP
Get in touch
Pumped Storage - Tractebel - Centrale hydroélectrique de Coo Trois Ponts.

The future of clean energy depends on scalable storage.

In the race toward decarbonisation, Pumped Storage Hydropower (PSH) is foundational to tomorrow’s power systems. It’s now a proven and scalable technology, able to store large amounts of electricity and release it on demand.

As a global leader in PSH engineering, Tractebel has more than 50 years of experience and involvement in many of the most iconic related projects worldwide. We bring cutting-edge expertise in all technical aspects of pumped storage — from early-stage studies to detailed engineering and project execution.

Our multidisciplinary teams have mastered PSH configurations — closed-loop and open-loop systems, surface and underground plants — and work closely with developers, utilities, equipment suppliers and EPC contractors to design robust, optimised and future-proof solutions.

Even more, Tractebel clients trust us to ensure they successfully navigate regulatory, environmental and complex grid-integration challenges. Our approach is designed to ensure project bankability and risk mitigation in ways that deliver long-term value.

Pumped Storage solutions

Your opportunities

  • Develop new large-scale pumped-storage projects to ensure grid stability, frequency regulation, and energy shifting for renewable integration

  • Secure end-to-end engineering support from feasibility to commissioning and beyond

  • Optimise layout, hydraulic design, and equipment configuration, surface or underground pumped-storage schemes

  • Leverage pumped storage to support hybrid renewable systems and strengthen grid flexibility

  • Manage environmental, social, and permitting challenges across jurisdictions

  • Implement detailed and constructible designs aligned with fast-track procurement strategies

  • Rehabilitate or modernise existing PSH infrastructure to extend lifetime, increase power output, or adapt to new demand profiles

  • Coordinate multiple interfaces in large, multi-contract or cross-border PSH developments

Our value

  • Decades of experience in PSH planning, design and construction supervision, with proven methodologies across all phases — from site selection to commissioning and operational support

  • Full lifecycle services including pre-feasibility, detailed design, procurement support, construction, commissioning supervision and operational advisory

  • In-house multidisciplinary expertise covering geology, geotechnical, civil, hydraulic, electro-mechanical, and control systems engineering, including complex tunnelling and cavern design

  • Advanced techno-economic analysis and system integration studies, ensuring compatibility with intermittent generation

  • Dedicated E&S specialists and global regulatory knowledge embedded in technical workflows

  • Specialised know-how in refurbishment projects: life assessment of existing assets, unit replacement, storage volume expansion, civil rehabilitation, power capacity upgrades, and integration with digital asset management

  • Strong track record supporting IPPs, utilities, and public clients with technical due diligence, feasibility studies, CAPEX/OPEX optimisation and stakeholder engagement

References

Our contribution in Renewables, Flex Power Gen & Storage

All references

Digital Solutions

Re-imagine your impact with our digital solutions

All digital app