The South Australian government has announced grants for four pumped hydro projects.

The money has been put up for feasibility studies for pumped hydro power plants near Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Germein.

Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance, a recent backer of Whyalla steelworks, has been granted $500,000 for a $1.7 million feasibility study on a pumped hydro plant at a mine site in the Middleback Ranges.

It will go over the engineering and geotechnical challenges and conduct commercial evaluations for a plan to convert the depleted iron ore pit into a pumped hydro plant.

$4.7 million was granted to help a 230MW pumped hydro energy storage facility near Port Augusta, which is expected to cost close to $410 million.

A planned 225MW hydro project at Cultana, north of Whyalla, was granted $500,000 to go towards a feasibility study, while another $3 million grant was announced for a $406 million pumped hydro project north-east of Port Germein.