卓蘭

Zhuolan Power Plant is located in Zhuolan Township, Miaoli County, near the Taichung border. It generates power from water diverted at the Shilin Weir on the Daan River, making it the largest hydroelectric plant in the Daan River system.

Zhuolan Power Plant runs on water diverted from the Daan River at the Shilin Weir, passing it through a 264-meter-head penstock tunnel before discharging into the Liyutan Reservoir for storage. Taipower carried out this second-phase diversion and generation project from 1994 to 2002, making Zhuolan the only large hydro plant on the Daan River system, with an 80 MW capacity.

卓蘭 (Hydro) currently reports a net generation of 24.9 MW across 2 unit(s), against an installed capacity of 80 MW (31.1% utilization).

Hydro plants can start or stop within seconds to minutes, making them one of the grid's fastest tools for frequency regulation and peak-shaving. The pumped-storage plants around Sun Moon Lake (Mingtan, Daguan) pump water uphill using off-peak electricity and release it to generate during peak demand, effectively acting as large-scale energy storage. Output is highly dependent on rainfall and reservoir levels.

Hydropower was Taiwan's earliest form of electricity generation, with several plants dating back to the Japanese colonial era. Because most viable river sites have already been developed, hydro capacity has grown little in recent decades and its share has been diluted by the rapid expansion of gas and solar. Its low-carbon, fast-dispatch characteristics nonetheless keep it strategically important for grid stability as variable renewables expand.