EWAZ-Transfer

Transfer project for the Harz energy and water storage facility

Background:

The construction of high-performance storage facilities is essential for the transformation of the energy infrastructure to renewable energies.

Furthermore, extreme hydrological events such as droughts or floods are posing increasingly greater challenges to water management planning. In order to address these issues, the aim of the "EWAZ Transfer: Transfer Project for Energy and Water Storage in the Harz Mountains" is to translate scientific findings from the previous EWAZ project (2019 to 2022) into concrete implementation strategies for a novel combined energy and water management storage power plant.

Objective of the main project:

EWAZ-Transfer is investigating how locations in the western Harz region can be networked to form an integrated energy and water management system. The focus is on designing a pilot combined power plant that simultaneously stores electricity from renewable energies, provides drinking water reserves, and offers protection against high and low water levels.

The project has the following specific objectives:

• Systemic networking of energy and water management infrastructures in the Harz region.
• Adaptation to climate change through combined energy and water management.
• Development of a pilot power plant as a model facility.
• Simulation and optimization of operational management.
• Provision of system services for energy supply,  drinking water provision as well as flood protection and drought management.
• Training and further education of specialists and managers, as well as social education in the field of energy and water systems technology.

Objectives of the subproject:

The involvement of the Department of Hydrology and River Basin Management focuses on Water management dimensioning relating to the operation of the Harzwasserwerke dam network with the additional pumped storage facility with the following steps:

• Further development of existing simulation models for water balance and the operation of storage and transfer systems under the influence of climate change.
• Analysis of variants for improved flood protection for the Harz dams through additional pumped storage operation, taking into account future reduced damage in the Harz foreland.
• Assessment of the impact of variants on the supply security for the population, water quality requirements (Forebay) and operation of the dam network.
• Definition of ecological limits and estimation of economic damage in the event of insufficient minimum levies.
• Contribution to the energy-oriented determination of the required amounts of pumped storage water and coupling to power plant design and operation.

Funding

Funding period: September 1, 2025 – August 31, 2027

Funding provider: Lower Saxony Investment and Development Bank (NBank), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)

Duration

September 1, 2025 – August 31, 2027

Project Partner

TU Clausthal: Institute of Mining, CUTEC Research Center

TU Braunschweig: Leichtweiß Institute for Hydraulic Engineering

• Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences: Institute for Sustainable Irrigation and Water Management in Rural Areas

• Georg August University of Göttingen: Institute for Political Science

• Leibniz University Hannover: Institute for Environmental Planning

• Harzwasserwerke GmbH

• Uniper Kraftwerke GmbH

• Harz Energie GmbH und Co. KG

• VGH Versicherungen - Landschaftliche Brandkasse (fire insurance) Hannover

• Öffentliche Versicherung Braunschweig

M. Sc. Fabian Weigl

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. rer. nat. habil. Kai Schröter