6. Grid integration and energy storage

Tidal power is highly predictable. Production per year and per month is more or less constant, but there is irregularity in production over half a tide and over 14 days:

• during each half-tide, production is stopped for about two hours, which justifies a storage capacity of at least 2 h of average production;

• during a few days of neap tide, production is a third lower than average, which justifies the use of lake hydroelectric power or thermal energy, or the storage of 20 to 30 hours of average tidal production;

• it can be very interesting to transfer a large part of the production of 8 h of night to the day and the hours of peak consumption;

• the best storage solution may be the creation of a STEP (Station de Transfert d'Énergie par Pompage)...