On Feb 4, 1:54*pm, wrote:
On Mon, 4 Feb 2013 10:41:50 -0800 (PST), "





wrote:
On Feb 4, 1:32*pm, wrote:
On Mon, 4 Feb 2013 08:57:50 -0800 (PST), "

wrote:
On Feb 4, 11:38 am, "Attila Iskander"
wrote:
"HeyBub" wrote in message

news:O96dnZQJY9B3JZLMnZ2dnUVZ_vCdnZ2d@earthlink. com...

Attila Iskander wrote:

And do they actually suck water from downstream to pump it back into
the dam ??

Yes. In California a few years ago, during one of their periods of energy
scarcity, several generating stations pumped water back into the resevoir
during off-peak hours (night). The California equivalent of a
perpetual-motion machine.

And where did they get the power to run those "pumps" ?

I would imagine it comes from some of the water flowing
through the generator, which would be the most logical source.

Ah, thermodynamics repealed!- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

No violation of thermodynamics involved.

It certainly is if you think you're doing this for a reason.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

The reason is to have more water available to supply more
power during peak times during the day. Let's say you have
100MW of generating capacity from water flow from the
normal flow of a river. The generator could supply 130MW if
there were more water flow, but the river is only capable of
100MW. At night, the demand is only
60MW. So, at night you take the extra 40MW that isn't needed
and use it to power pumps to move water to a reservoir
upstream of the generator. The next day, when you need
more than 100MW, you start releasing that extra water,
boosting the generator output above 100MW.

Nothing there violates thermodynamics and there is a
reason for it. The power generating company has just
help meet peak demand and gotten paid for electricity
that it would otherwise have not been able to produce.
Feel free to admit you're wrong at any time.