In PSH stations, when the turbines change spin direction, how is it possible for them to pump the water back up into the upper reservoir while the water is still flowing downhill from there? Are they just that powerful?
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Pretty much. For the water to get back up into the reservoir, the pumps have to be able to create as much pressure in the pipes as there is when the water is coming down by gravity to run the turbines. In the PSH I visited they had 1 pump per turbine, and those pumps were run by massive electric motors, maybe 3m tall.
They could have intermediate pumping stations along the pipe which would reduce the size of each individual pump, but since they’re pumping uphill, there would be no easy place to put the buildings that would house those new pumps. The easiest solution is really to just build massive pumps at the bottom that do the whole job.
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