Congratulations to the four grand prize winners, who received up to $550,000 in vouchers and cash prizes. They are:
- Reducing PSH Excavation Duration, Cost, & Risk – Tracy Livingston and Thomas Conroy, Team Livingston, combined excavation equipment modifications and process optimizations to achieve up to 50% reduction in excavation timelines.
- Use of Modern TBMs for Underground Pumped Storage – Doug Spaulding, Nelson Energy and Golder Associates, proposed use of tunnel boring machines for underground excavation, which can decrease excavation time by 50% and reduce costs.
- Accelerating PSH Construction with Steel Dams – Gordon Wittmeyer, Southwest Research Institute, presented a modular steel concept for dams that cuts costs by one-third and cuts construction schedules in half.
- Modular Closed-Loop Scalable Pump Storage Hydro – Tom Eldredge and Hector Medina, Liberty University, presented a modular closed-loop, scalable PSH system with a capacity range of 1–10 megawatt, adaptable to sites without natural bodies of water.
