A novel map for deciding on the type of a hydro power plant

The advantages of adding a pumping facility to a simple hydro power plant have been discussed in the literature. However, there has been no presentation of a general pattern on the basis of which one can decide between the installations of a simple hydro power plant and a pump-assisted one. This paper, using the dynamic programming optimisation method, presents a novel map comparing these types of hydro power plant in terms of different economic criteria including annual benefit from electricity sales, net present value, benefit–cost ratio, payback time and internal rate of return. This map can be modified for any desired set of economic parameters. Moreover, the paper includes a detailed analysis and comparison of the performance strategies of the two types of plant under different levels of ‘electricity price variability’ and ‘natural inflow rate’. The paper ends with a sensitivity analysis of the results to some major economic parameters.