Innovative Battery Manufacturing Facilities Construction management consultancy for building innovative battery manufacturing facilities in the United States. Bechtel is at the forefront of constructing innovative battery manufacturing facilities in the U.S. Our expert team ensures compliance with local codes and…
Read More
The Bechtel-built mine, one of the largest copper resources, features a first-of-its-kind desalination plant and will operate on 100% renewable energy by 2025.
Read More
Bechtel is delivering one of Australia’s largest infrastructure projects — a state-of-the-art airport designed to handle 10 million passengers annually.
Read More
Oct 15, 2025
As electricity demand surges and intermittent renewable generation introduces greater variability to power flows on the grid, the need for flexible, long-duration (20-30+ hours), dispatchable energy storage has never been more urgent.
Pumped storage hydropower (PSH) has delivered energy storage capacity and transmission benefits to the United States since the 1920s. Today, 43 PSH projects totaling 23 GW are operational nationwide, providing 97% of the country’s utility-scale energy storage.
By 2050, the U.S. will require an estimated 36 GW of new PSH capacity—more than double what exists today—to meet growing energy security and grid stability needs. However, realizing this potential is far from straightforward. PSH projects are among the most complex infrastructure undertakings—demanding not only technical excellence but, crucially, a foundation of trust, transparency, and collaboration among all delivery stakeholders.
Globally, PSH champions increasingly recognize that overcoming such barriers requires trust and transparent, proactive collaboration among developers, owners, engineers, contractors, and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). With a foundation of partnership in place, project teams are far better positioned to navigate complexity, accelerate delivery, and maximize value—truly operating as one team.
At Bechtel, we believe early investments in building trust and confidence among stakeholders are critical. Through the International Hydropower Association’s Working Group on De-risking Pumped Storage, we took a leading role in convening developers, owners, engineers, financiers, and policymakers to confront the unique risks associated with PSH and collaborate on practical, actionable strategies to address them.
The following recommendations outline how early alignment, thoughtful planning, and tailored commercial structures—grounded in trust and transparency—can help stakeholders unlock and successfully deliver PSH projects.
Stakeholder engagement is a cornerstone of effective project planning. Early stakeholder engagement is critical to avoid rework, delays, and misalignment. We recommend that project development establish a successful project culture from day one by including:
At Bechtel, we deploy proven tools and processes to support early collaboration, such as:
Given the long timelines and multi-billion-dollar budgets, PSH projects demand thoughtful, streamlined planning. To shorten development cycles and improve efficiency in planning, we recommend:
Bechtel’s PSH and Hydro Playbook brings together decades of lessons learned in megaproject delivery, along with our deep engineering and construction expertise in a structured, gated development process. We are also investing in digital and AI-supported design and construction planning, enabling earlier modelling of design and execution scenarios.
PSH projects require a tailored commercial model and should reflect the collaborative foundation of the project. We believe that successful commercial strategies share these key principles:
Transparent risk assessments and cost estimates help ensure project budgets are realistic and provide greater certainty of outcome. We advocate for models that utilize concepts such as target cost compensation and change provisions based on a Geotechnical Baseline Report—which build trust and accountability among all stakeholders.
PSH is foundational to the future of energy security and grid stability in the U.S. To unlock the next wave of PSH development, stakeholders must embrace a partnership-first approach. By building trust, aligning early, planning efficiently and robustly, and structuring contracts responsibly, we can deliver PSH projects that meet the needs of tomorrow’s grid and deliver lasting value to consumers.
