馬鞍

Ma'an Power Plant is located along the Dajia River in Heping District, Taichung City, part of the Dajia River hydroelectric cascade together with the Guguan and Tianlun plants.

Maan Power Plant is the last completed and most downstream station in the Dajia River hydro system, with Unit 1 entering service in July 1998 and Unit 2 that September. Each unit pairs a Swedish ABB generator with a Norwegian Kvaerner vertical Francis turbine rated at about 66.7MW, housed in a semi-underground powerhouse.

馬鞍 (Hydro) currently reports a net generation of 31 MW across 2 unit(s), against an installed capacity of 133.4 MW (23.2% 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.