Pondage

Pondage usually refers to the comparably small water storage behind the weir of a run-of-the-river hydroelectric power plant. Such a power plant has considerably less storage than the reservoirs of large dams and conventional hydroelectric stations which can store water for long periods such as a dry season or year. With pondage, water is usually stored during periods of low electricity demand and hours when the power plant is inactive, enabling its use as a peaking power plant in dry seasons and a base load power plant during wet seasons.[1] Ample pondage allows a power plant to meet hourly load fluctuations for a period of a week or more.[2][3]

As a daily hydropeaking cycle of a hydro power plant with pondage results in fast rising river levels downstream, environmental regulations often restrict the full use of the dispatchability as a peaker.

  1. ^ Dwivedi, A.K. Raja, Amit Prakash Srivastava, Manish (2006). Power Plant Engineering. New Delhi: New Age International. p. 354. ISBN 81-224-1831-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Joel De Witt Justin, William Pitcher Creager (1950). Hydroelectric handbook. Wiley. p. 162. OCLC 1609321.
  3. ^ Wadhwa, C.L. (1993). Generation, distribution, and utilization of electrical energy (Rev. ed.). New Delhi: New Age International (P) Ltd. p. 20. ISBN 81-224-0073-6.