San Luis Reservoir

Even though we got into our campsite after midnight I was happy we were there. The stars were absolutely amazing. I think I spent a hour before going to sleep just staring at the stars. In New Jersey I was am use to seeing 10 stars at the most. There had to be thousands right there in front of me and they were so bright that Ifelt like I could touch them. Finally I drifted off to sleep, waking up occasionally to swat a fly off my face, but I was happy.

We woke in the morning packed up our gear and headed for the reservoir. We had a short lecture there about the reservoir and I learned a lot. It holds about 2 million acre feet of water and is the largest off stream reservoir in the US. That means that all of the water in the reservoir is piped in from the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers. The majority of the water is used for irrigation but some is used. The cost of running the off stream reservoir is higher then a regular reservoir but 55% of the cost is funded by the federal government while the rest is funded by the state. The way they pay the cost is by using pump storage to produce peak hour electricity.

Pump storage is not the greenest ways to produce energy but it is a very good way to get peak hour power. During off peak hours water is pumped from the O'Neill Forebay, which if fed by the California aqueduct, into the San Luis Reservoir, with an elevation difference of 219 feet. The pump is powered by energy from the grid that is sold at a cheaper cost. Then when peak demand hits the water is released from the reservoir back into the forebay , flowing through a turbine creating energy that can be sold on the grid at a higher price. This specific pump storage facility produces about 400 megawatts a day.

Picture Citations:

"San Luis Reservoir." Bureau of Reclamation. About the San Luis Reservoir Low Point Improvement Project. Web. 2011.

http://www.usbr.gov/mp/sllpp/images/index_page.jpg

"Pump Storage." McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology. Web. 1997.

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