wrote in message
...
On Fri, 15 May 2009 11:35:57 -0700, "Calif Bill"
wrote:

PG&E has been doing pumped water power storage for a lot of years. Maybe
more than my lifetime. The Pit River power stations use the excess power
from Shasta Dam during the night to pump water back up to the top
reservoir.
There was a big plant built in the southern Sierras about 40 years ago. I
think it is still in use. Large tunnel when being built had an industrial
disaster when scaffolding collapsed killing some workers. Due to water
flow
requirements, there is excess power in the middle of the night, so they
use
it to store kinetic energy in the pumped power plants.
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssI...33931720090504


I think that is just because you guys are out of "free" water coming
down from the mountain. It does take away a lot of the efficiency of a
falling water system when you have to pump it back up the hill.

It is the water that has to flow from the dam to provide the subsidized
water for subsidized crops in the desert.