大觀一

Daguan No.1 Power Plant sits beside Sun Moon Lake in Yuchi Township, Nantou County. One of Taipower's oldest hydroelectric plants, it draws on the lake's abundant water resources and forms part of the broader Sun Moon Lake hydroelectric system together with Daguan No.2 and Mingtan plants.

Daguan No. 1 began life as the Japanese-era Mongaotan Power Station, completed in 1934 as what was then reportedly Asia's largest and the world's seventh-largest power plant, with five units totaling 110,000 kW. Bombed during World War II, it resumed operation in 1946 under the Daguan name, then took its current "No. 1" designation in 1985 once the Mingtan pumped-storage plant was completed.

大觀一 (Hydro) currently reports a net generation of 11.3 MW across 5 unit(s), against an installed capacity of 110 MW (10.3% 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.