Pumped-Storage Plant Upper Reservoir Leak Detection

Background

Upper reservoirs of pumped-storage plants rely on full-basin geomembrane liners and operate under high head and large drawdown cycles. Even minor liner defects threaten slope stability and directly degrade dispatchable capacity and round-trip efficiency. SENEVEN delivered full-coverage electrical leak detection on a major upper reservoir between liner placement and overburden installation.

Challenge

A steep 1:1.75 bank slope, an extensive lined footprint and dense seam patterns combined with a critical-path construction window — defects had to be located and repaired without delaying subsequent works.

Solution

During the exposed-liner phase, the entire basin was scanned with arc-test method (ASTM D7953) to flag pinholes and seam defects at the millimetre scale; steep transitions were augmented with the dual-electrode method. Every flag was handed to the contractor with georeferenced coordinates and on-site marking for immediate repair.

Results