A BIG Year for BIG Hydro?

Back to the Future!

1.21 Gigawatts! Great Scott! A favorite line from a favorite actor in one of my favorite movies. Thanks to the rain and snow that continues to hound California, there *should* be more than enough electrical currents in this state to power dozens of Flux Capacitors all summer long.

It is the month of March in Northern California. During a normal year, I would be busy digging up the garden right about now. I would have already planted onions and potatoes. The next step would be tilling up and preparing the main garden area for all sorts of summer vegetables.

This year, however, has been anything but normal. The onions and potatoes are not planted. The section of the yard set aside for these efforts was under several inches of water just a day or two ago. The main garden area, meanwhile, resembles a mud pit. From a gardening standpoint, everything is on hold for the moment.

This may sound like terrible news, but it's not. It's a minor inconvenience. The onion and potato planting party can wait. Mother Nature isn't quite done yet. Another storm or two is in the immediate forecast. This means more rain, more mud in the garden and more snow in the high country. A lot more snow.

Lake Tahoe Snowpack

This bounty of rain and snow that Mother Nature has provided for us in the 2022-2023 winter season is a blessing in many ways. It means more than enough irrigation water for backyard gardening and fruit growing efforts like mine. Commercial agriculture *should* get close to 100-percent of irrigation water deliveries from the state and federal water projects. This will, in turn, reduce or even eliminate pumping for groundwater supplies for many farmers and ranchers.

What farmer needs to pay for electricity to pump water from a well when the canals, holding basins, lakes and reservoirs are full of water? Which they are at the moment, thanks to this winter's non-stop rains. When the rain eventually dries up and the weather warms, the real bounty will come with a record snowpack in the Sierra Nevada that begins to melt. Hopefully, it's a slow melt.

But the biggest payoff should be an abundance of electrical power to run every single air conditioner and light up every light bulb in California  this summer and every other western state with a connecting electrical grid. The power producer known as BIG Hydro is primed and ready to deliver a BIG year.

Lake Oroville-Courtesy Bill Bailey

What exactly is BIG Hydro? There are many definitions. The U.S. Department of Energy defines it as "facilities that have a capacity of more than 30 megawatts (MW)." Other definitions put that number at 10 MW, but you get the idea. It's a boatload of electrical power. The BIG Hydro plants in California are primed to deliver a very big year indeed. This number will be so big that it won't be measured in megawatts, but rather gigawatts (GW).

One GW is a LOT of power. How much? It's enough, obviously, to power a single Flux Capacitor (almost). In more conventional terms, however, you would need roughly 3.1 million photovoltaic panels (solar) or 333 utility-scale (very large) wind turbines to achieve that kind of electrical output. In terms of horsepower, you could possibly generate that same kind of electrical kick with a horse race featuring 1.3 million horses.

Shasta Powerplant-Courtesy KRCR-TV

The Shasta Powerplant located at the base of Shasta Dam, California's largest reservoir, can generate more than 700 MW of power when the reservoir is full. That's enough juice to power 700,000 homes and businesses. This is just one BIG Hydro plant. There are numerous others.

The Hyatt Powerplant, Thermalito Diversion Dam Powerplant and the Thermalito Pumping-Generating Plant are all located at the base of Lake Oroville in Butte County. Combined, all three can also generate more than 700 MW of power when Oroville is full of water. That won't be a problem this year as Oroville has already reached the point where large water releases have already started thanks to a monster snowpack in the Feather River watershed located above the lake.

Oroville Spillway-Courtesy Bill Bailey

Speaking of the Feather River watershed, you shouldn't miss the opportunity to drive up Highway 70 into God's Country this summer. The show of spring and summer wildflowers should be a sight to behold. Not only does this drive offer the pure, stark beauty that is Northern California, it's also home to the "Stairway of Power." The entire river canyon has been transformed into one BIG Hydro plant after another.

Why is all of  this so important? Hydroelectric power is nothing new, after all. This is a true statement. Yet, among all forms of power generation in this country and elsewhere, even in this day and age, BIG Hydro is still the cheapest, cleanest, safest and most reliable form of power generation on the planet. Check that: It's only reliable if the rain and snow fall in any given year. If the rain doesn't fall or the snow melts away quickly, that reliability factor gets a bit "iffy."

That "reliability" factor is important. California gets summer power from a variety of sources. The 2021-2022 season was a dry year indeed. Dry years spell big trouble for BIG Hydro. The combination of power from both big and small hydro projects amounted to a measley 14 GW of power. That small number forced utility companies like Pacific Gas & Electric to burn natural gas supplies to make up the difference. A lot more.

Hyatt Powerplant-Courtesy DWR

This year, however, should tell a far more pleasing story. There's enough "juice" (water) in the Northern and Central California watersheds to power big and large hydroelectric plants all summer long. The last big year for BIG Hydro came in 2017. The combination of big and small hydroelectric generators produced nearly 44 GW of power.

That's enough power for nearly 36 Flux Capacitors if my math is right (31 million homes). Of course, you may need to visit a few California junkyards to find that many DMC DeLorean Time Machines.