天輪

Tianlun Power Plant is located along the Dajia River in Heping District, Taichung City, and is one of Taipower's longest-operating hydroelectric plants, forming part of the Dajia River's stepped hydro cascade together with the upstream Guguan and Techi plants.

Tianlun Power Plant began as the Japanese colonial-era "Tianleng Power Station" planned in 1941, halted in 1944 amid wartime shortages, and resumed after Taiwan's retrocession, finally completed under its current name in September 1952. It was the first plant finished in the Dajia River hydro system, and today also houses that system's administrative and remote-control center.

天輪 (Hydro) currently reports a net generation of 35 MW across 5 unit(s), against an installed capacity of 195 MW (17.9% 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.