A pump storage station for Pyhäsalmi Mine

Investments in energy storage

Pyhäsalmi Mine is more than 1,445 metres deep and located in the town of Pyhäjärvi. Underground mining there will come to an end in 2022. The infrastructure provided by the mine is unique on a global scale and would offer excellent opportunities for many kinds of purposes. One plan for the further utilisation of the mine is to use it as an energy reserve and pump storage station. EPV Energy joined this interesting project at the beginning of 2021 and decided to explore this storage solution further.

The energy storage project planned for EPV Energy’s Pyhäsalmi Mine took an important step forward in the autumn of 2021 when the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland granted the project EUR 26.3 million of aid for investment costs.

This energy storage project, if implemented, would bring excellent flexibility to EPV’s future energy system.

EPV Energy is a major producer of wind power and, in the future, solar power and it needs flexibility in its production portfolio to counteract the effects of natural elements on its weather-dependent energy generation. The project is in line with our strategy and presents one potential option as a flexible capacity solution.

Several studies have already been carried out on the feasibility of the energy storage project, and EPV Energy has contributed to them by carrying out market forecasts of renewable energy and providing background information on rock engineering in collaboration with its partners.

At the heart of our strategy is renewable electricity, with new technologies to manage its production, storage and use. In the future, new electricity will be solely generated using the zero-emission energy sources of solar, wind, hydro and nuclear power, which are key to our strategy.

The Pyhäsalmi pumping power station project in figures:

Power: ±75 MW (+generation -charging)
Capacity: 530 MWh
Storage capacity: 7/9 h (generation/charging)
Round-trip efficiency (round-trip): 77%

Would you like to know more about the project?

Ask for more:

Aki Hakulinen, Power Plant Manager, EPV Energy
aki.hakulinen@epv.fi
Tel. 010 505 5016