The Valdecañas pumped-storage hydro plant in southwestern Spain has undergone a technical upgrade, increasing its operational capacity by 355 MW and adding a 15 MW/7.5 MWh hybrid battery system.
Spanish utility Iberdrola has implemented technological improvements to its Valdecañas pumping station on the Tagus River near Cáceres, southwestern Spain.
The improvements add 355 MW of power and 210 GWh of additional storage capacity to a power station that began commissioning in March 2025 with an initial nameplate capacity of 225 MW. Iberdrola says the increase strengthens the integration of renewable energy and stability of the electricity supply.
The new configuration also includes a 15 MW/7.5 MWh hybrid battery, which Iberdrola adds helps to increase the local Tajo grid’s storage capacity by up to a further 210 GWh, equivalent to the average annual consumption of 60,000 households.
Iberdrola’s latest update confirms that the facility has already carried out its first pumping operations.
“The ‘gigabattery’ created by connecting two of Europe’s largest reservoirs, Alcántara and Valdecañas, enables the absorption of surplus energy from non-dispatchable renewable sources (solar and wind) to be fed back into the system when these sources are unavailable and demand requires it,” the company explains.
The Valdecañas plant forms part of the wider Torrejón–Valdecañas system, a pumped-storage hydroelectric complex consisting multiple reservoirs which Iberdrola says operates as a giant hydraulic battery, capable of pumping water to higher elevations during periods of surplus renewable energy. The surplus energy is used to pump water into an upper reservoir, with the water released to generate electricity when demand rises.
Iberdrola has installed more than 4.2 GW of pumped-storage hydroelectric plants across Spain, according to figures available on its website. Last year, the company began the approval process for a 1.32 GW pumped-hydro project in Portugal, set to become the country’s largest of its kind.
