en.Wedoany.com Reported - The temporary consortium formed by engineering firm Typsa and Jesús Granell Ingeniero Consultor has won a contract worth €2.1 million to develop the roadmap for Spain's National Hydropower Storage Program (Programa Nacional de Almacenamiento Hidráulico de Energía, PNAHE). The project aims to utilize state-owned reservoirs as energy storage facilities to enhance grid stability, and is one of the Spanish government's strategic initiatives to promote storage through hydraulic infrastructure and accelerate the integration of renewable energy into the power system.
The contract, promoted by the Directorate General for Water under the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, will identify, analyze, and plan the potential for constructing pumped storage hydropower plants in public reservoirs. Such plants store electricity when renewable energy generation exceeds demand and release it back to the grid during peak demand. The project will also provide a basis for public tenders aimed at developing new pumped storage facilities linked to state-owned infrastructure, with the goal of standardizing facility deployment and advancing commitments under the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (Plan Nacional Integrado de Energía y Clima, PNIEC) to significantly increase storage capacity over the next decade.
The consortium won an open tender that attracted seven bids. Its proposal achieved the best overall score, with technical evaluation accounting for 48% of the total. Although its economic offer of €1.73 million (excluding VAT) was only the third highest among the five shortlisted proposals, the consortium obtained the highest technical score in the qualitative phase with 86 points out of 100, securing the highest overall score in the process. The second-ranked bid was from a consortium formed by Qanat Ingeniería and Meta Engineering, followed by a consortium of Intecsa Engineering Group and Tecopy.
At the time of the award, the board of Typsa, the consortium leader, included a former Director General for Water. Since July 2024, Manuel Menéndez Prieto has served on Typsa's board; he was Director General for Water from June 2018 to January 2020 and continued working at the Ministry for Ecological Transition until 2024. Approximately a year and a half after he joined the company's board, the Directorate General for Water awarded the contract to the consortium led by Typsa.
The administration placed particular emphasis on the technical capacity of the proposed team to execute the contract. Personnel responsible for preparing evaluation reports, feasibility studies, and environmental assessments far exceeded the tender requirements and received the highest scores for additional experience. The consortium submitted an extensive record of work related to reservoir safety and operation, reservoir management, hydrological planning, and technical support for basin authorities and public administration bodies, with experience exceeding the qualification thresholds set by the ministry.
The contract has a duration of 24 months, during which the necessary technical, environmental, and economic studies will be conducted to identify the best storage opportunities in Spain's public reservoirs. The project is fully funded by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge and is one of the government's main tools to promote hydropower storage as a complement to renewable generation growth. Typsa and Jesús Granell Ingeniero Consultor will design the strategy to lay the groundwork for future investments in pumped storage hydropower plants on state-owned infrastructure. The government believes the project will help unlock the potential of public reservoirs, strengthen supply security, increase the flexibility of the power system, and advance climate neutrality goals for the coming decades.
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