Based on the development of Guangdong Power Grid

a control strategy for pumped storage power station to assist system operation for frequency control has been proposed in this paper. During several critical periods of frequency control in daily operation caused by the insufficient ramping rate

the pumped storage units were controlled to participate in the frequency control mechanism to increase ramping capability based on the bio-directional operation and fast switching abilities. The pumped storage units could facilitate the AGC controlled coal-fired generators by switching its operation modes and generating output power variation. A closed-loop frequency regulation mechanism was proposed to integrate pumped storage units with current AGC system. With the proposed operation strategy

experimental results were carried out with practical operation of Guangdong Power Grid. The results have shown the frequency deviations in the three critical periods can be controlled within ±0.03 Hz and it is possible to apply pumped storage units to facilitate system frequency regulation. It also shows that the potential of applying pumped storage units for frequency regulation.