What's wrong with this...

I guess it depends on what powers those pumps... it just seems odd that they could generate extra energy that way, it should take just as much energy to pump it up as it generated falling down... minus the lack of efficiency in your pumps.

Maybe the pumps are solar powered LOL

When you multiply something by millions over decades, even small quantites become significant.
 
It's likely a power regeneration scheme. The plant produces power at peak times of the day by releasing water from the upper reservoir through the generator turbines then pumps the water back during off-peak times. Power sold during peak times is more expensive than power used during off-peak times.

I was involved in a similar project that was to use an old limestone mine as a compressed gas reservoir. The idea was to use low cost power during non-peak times to compress air into the mine and then release the compessed air and drive turbine powered generators to produce electricty during the peak hours, selling the power when costs were high.
 
It's likely a power regeneration scheme. The plant produces power at peak times of the day by releasing water from the upper reservoir through the generator turbines then pumps the water back during off-peak times. Power sold during peak times is more expensive than power used during off-peak times.

I was involved in a similar project that was to use an old limestone mine as a compressed gas reservoir. The idea was to use low cost power during non-peak times to compress air into the mine and then release the compessed air and drive turbine powered generators to produce electricty during the peak hours, selling the power when costs were high.

Ah yes...that must be it. Kind of like freezing water at night and using it to cool buildings during the day.

I figured there had to be more to it.
 
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