To address the capacity allocation of distributed variable-speed pumped storage and its positional access in the network when there is a high proportion of renewable energy, a joint planning scheme for the transmission network and distributed variable-speed pumped storage is proposed. First, the operation and reservoir constraints of various types of pumped storage, the output and ramp constraints of thermal power units, and the transmission capacity of the transmission networks are taken into account, and a joint planning model between distributed variable-speed pumped storage and the transmission network is established with the optimization objective of economic consumption of distributed renewable energy. Then, the model is transformed into a mixed-integer linear programming model by a convex relaxation method, and the joint planning scheme for distributed variable-speed pumped storage and the transmission network is obtained by using a two-stage optimization method. Finally, two standard test systems are adopted for comparison and validation. Compared to a fixed-speed pumped storage scheme, the proposed joint planning with distributed variable-speed pumped storage can effectively coordinate with other flexible resources to accommodate renewable energy sources, leading to approximately 20% overall cost reduction.