Storing electrical energy in the form of thermal energy, pumped heat electricity storage (PHES) systems are a location‐independent alternative to established storage technologies. Detailed analyses, considering the transient operation of PHES systems based on commercially available or state‐of‐the‐art technology, are currently not publicly accessible. In this work, numerical models that enable a transient simulation of PHES systems are developed using the process simulation software EBSILON^® Professional. A PHES system based on a Joule/Brayton cycle is designed, considering commercially available and state‐of‐the‐art components. Employing the developed models and an exergoeconomic analysis, the transient operation of the PHES system is simulated and evaluated. The analyzed PHES system reaches a round‐trip efficiency of 42.9%. The exergoeconomic analysis shows that PHES systems have higher power‐specific costs than established storage technologies. They can currently not be economically operated at the day‐ahead market for Germany and Austria, which is predominantly resulting from high purchased equipment costs. However, PHES systems have the advantage of being location‐independent.

Pumped thermal energy storage (PTES) is a technology for intermediate storage of electrical energy in the form of thermal energy. In this work, PTES systems based on a transcritical CO₂ charging process are investigated. A two‐zone water storage tank with a storage temperature of 115°C is used as thermal energy storage. For discharge, an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) and, alternatively, a transcritical CO₂ heat engine are investigated. The considered concepts are modelled and simulated as stationary processes using the EBSILON Professional software. The scaling is based on an electrical input power of 5 MW. Using an ORC with the working fluid R1234yf for the discharging process results in the highest round‐trip efficiency of 36.8%. The component costs of the different configurations are estimated using cost functions. On the basis of this, the levelized cost of storage (LCOS) is calculated. The configuration with the ORC as the discharging process has the lowest LCOS of 59.2 €cents (kWh)⁻¹. In addition, the technological maturity is determined using the technology readiness level scale. There are no prototypes of the investigated PTES systems yet. Therefore, further investigations must be carried out to implement the technology in the future.