The Three Gorges Power Station mainly bears the base load and waist load during the flood season, an

Hydropower operation is limited by incoming water, while the installed capacity of power stations is limited.

In the dry season, the power station can use the surplus units and limited water for peak regulation, and the peak regulation performance of the hydropower unit is very good, which can reduce the efficiency loss of thermal power peak regulation and achieve the highest overall efficiency of the power system.

In order to avoid the loss of abandoned hydropower, it is necessary to use the power generation capacity as much as possible to use the water, at this time there is no surplus peak regulation capacity, and it is necessary to rely on thermal power or pumped storage peak regulation, so that although the thermal power peak regulation has an efficient loss, but the use of cheap hydropower power generation, the overall efficiency of the power system can still be improved.

Baseload electricity is cheaper than peak load!

At any time, the hydropower station has to undertake the task of peak regulation, which is determined by the nature of the hydropower station, the driving force of the hydropower station is water, and the size of the water volume is adjusted by adjusting the angle of the runner, which is very convenient to increase the zero load to hundreds of thousands of kilowatts in a few seconds, and can also reduce the load of hundreds of thousands of kilowatts to zero load in a few seconds.

During the dry season, the water is stored in the dam and released to generate electricity when the load is increased.

When the electric energy is abundant, the pumped energy storage power station can also pump water for storage, and when the electric energy is insufficient, it can release water to generate electricity, making full use of water resources.

Therefore, it is the best way to use the hydropower station as peak regulation, frequency regulation and backup.

The part below the minimum load level is called the base load; The part above the average load level is the peak load; The part between the minimum load and the average load is called the waist load. In order to meet the needs of the system load, load work should be carried out and load curves for different purposes should be drawn.

The wet season is generally full load, and the base load can reduce water abandonment and save energy.

Peak regulation is no different, but the performance of peak regulation is different, hydropower response is fast, thermal power response is slower, so the main peak regulation must be hydropower, in the hydropower peak regulation is insufficient or the wet period, it is necessary to thermal power peak regulation, the principle of peak regulation, peak regulation, nothing more than the unit is not enough to start, there is an idling capacity to increase the output of the prime mover, thermal power is to burn more coal, hydropower to use more water, the governor accordingly adjusts the output of the steam turbine or water turbine, the generator output increases, to make up for the lack of system power.

Therefore, the task of peak regulation and frequency regulation is generally undertaken by hydropower stations. Thermal power stations generally bear the base load and waist load, and the peak load is borne by the hydropower station. This is because it takes several hours for the gas turbine of a thermal power station to be connected to the grid from the boiler to the steam turbine, and it usually takes a long time after it is connected to the grid.

If it is allowed to adjust the peak load, it will keep starting and stopping or changing the output, the utilization rate of the fuel medium is very low, and the reaction speed cannot keep up. Unlike thermal power stations, which require boiler preheating before power generation, hydropower stations can be connected to the grid for power generation in just a few minutes, and will not cause a lot of energy waste like the start and stop of steam turbines, so hydropower stations generally undertake the task of peak regulation and frequency regulation.

The peak shaving of thermal power and hydropower is basically the same, both of which are caused by the inconsistency between power generation and consumption, and electricity cannot be stored in large quantities. Specifically, thermal power is regulated by the output of a steam turbine, while hydropower is regulated by the output of a hydroelectric turbine.

Pumped storage is to use the excess electricity at night at a low price, pumped storage, and use the gravitational potential energy of water during the day to generate electricity, sell it, and make a profit. It is also one of the means of energy conservation and peak shaving.