Oroville Update! Hyatt Powerplant Offline 8/6/21 California Drought

[@blancolirio]

CORRECTION #1: Hyatt Power Plant if all 6 turbines are spinning us 644 MWs. Using the 67,880 MWHs /yr of possible energy produced would mean all 6 turbines ran at full capacity for 105 hours per year. They are run as needed for the River flow needed. If the 6 turbines had the water to run at 100%, that electrical energy would be about 5,378,640 MWHs over a year. CORRECTION #2: Outflow from Oroville includes all releases from the Oroville Dam (i.e.: Hyatt, spillway, low flow outlet), while River Release (RIV REL) pertains to the Oroville Complex as a whole which includes any releases from the Diversion Dam gates and Thermalito Afterbay River Outlet.

[@JWindom17]

Thanks for the correction. From other sources, Edward Hyatt (Orville) Power Plant is the largest underground pump-generating installation in the United States. The plant's 3 turbines and 3 pump-turbines have an installed capacity of 644 Mw.

[@inothome]

I was just looking for a correction..... 67,788 MW was just a little bit too much... just a little..... Especially when Three Gorges is 22,000MW.

[@davidstuebner9021]

Yes, thanks. I was trying to figure out what was wrong. A nuke plant is about 1000MW, and I seriously doubted Hyatt was the equivalent to 68 nukes. Interesting to think that they could empty the reservoir in just over 4 days.

[@mooorecowbell4222]

The placard at the visitor center reads the following for GENERATING: INSTALLED CAPACITY ........819 Megawatts operating @ 16,950 (cfs) which will supply enough power for 800,000 homes. PUMPING: INSTALLED CAPACITY........5610 (cfs) , 519,000 (hp)....UNIT SIZE..........1,870 (cfs) is equivalent to 839,000 gallons per minute.

[@gazzpazzer]

I'm constantly impressed with the comprehensive, factual, educational, reportage, you present.

[@dgsantafedave1]

Juan you have become a trusted "news source" for the Northern California viewing area. I am glad you find the time to report this info to the public. Smoke is bad around Corning/Red Bluff and it looks like another 2020 with August becoming a "smoke month" and no "dog days of August" Hope you ar e safe up were you are and keep up the good work!

[@brucejones2354]

I just came down from Boise to Salt Lake, the smoke is really a problem most all the way. It is so bad in Salt Lake that you can't see the mountains from I 15 , that's 5 miles away!

[@SandrA-hr5zk]

Weather reports are pretty much good for finding out the current temp outside. Even all the way down in Modesto the smoke is pretty hazy.

[@HamRadio200]

Juan is an excellent objective news source. I respect him.

[@halbrown7121]

Let them generate electricity with solar. That aughta power their air conditioners.

[@HamRadio200]

@@halbrown7121 LOL. One of the best comments on this thread! California is supposedly the "leader" in "green" [it's not green at all; considering the environmental impact producing the equipment needed, not to mention the millions of birds the wind farms kill every year..] energy, yet their power conglomerates are telling people to quit charging their electric cars because of the increased demand for electricity on their grid. They've demonized fossil fuels to the point that they'd rather deal with rolling blackouts and literally go back to the dark ages than burn some hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons that the SUN created to store the excess solar energy that was falling on the planet. A total solar/wind dependent energy grid is an absolute pipe dream.

[@BradGryphonn]

And to think that just a few years ago this lake was overflowing to the point of near collapse. Crazy how things change.

[@edc1569]

Unprecedented

[@gavincurtis]

It's where the water goes.?..now it is drought here as the other side of the planet is flooding to catastrophe. Giza pyramids were in a lush jungle once too they say.

[@johnsweda2999]

Maybe you should expand it why they got the chance! there will be more lf this coming

[@jhill4071]

Look at the California population curve vs the assure water availability.. Population and swimming pools skyrocketed and the water supply stayed the same.

[@brianbiddle7590]

@@jhill4071 residential use is only 10% of water used in CA. The majority is used to grow crops to send overseas or they just let it flow out to the ocean.

[@mooorecowbell4222]

Juan, according to Millie Kay the sliding penstock intake gates are opened and closed with hydraulic control systems. The trash racks can now receive proper inspection and maintenance since they are exposed. No divers are required now. This summer at the Hyatt Power plant one turbine was in service generating 30mW. Thermolito is generating about 10mW and the diversion plant is able to generate 2.5mw. (this information is subject to change and was confirmed by the law firm of Stator, Rotor & Watts.)

[@sietuuba]

Surely not milliwatts? ;-)

[@jonadams8841]

MW = megawatt. mW = milliwatt. Billion-fold difference. I think I know what you meant, but it’s important to get things like that right. Cheers!

[@mooorecowbell4222]

@@jonadams8841 good catch... you are correct. I will spell out mega watt long hand for future updates. my bad.

[@mooorecowbell4222]

@@sietuuba you are correct. MW mega watts is what I meant. my bad

[@roytrembath]

🤣🤣 stator rotor and Watts...very funny

[@budp.4209]

Thank you for an in depth report of what's going on at Lake Oroville Dam and our current drought conditions. I remember when the lake was going over the emergency spillway and now to see it so low is alarming. Both ends of the spectrum within 4 years.

[@normadesmond9659]

This would all be Greek to me had I not been following you 4 years ago. I even remember how to read the data lol! You are such a good teacher. CNN can't touch this.

[@jenniferwhitewolf3784]

The Commie News Network has no interest in educating anyone with truth and integrity. They are little more than a leftist oriented propaganda machine. Thank goodness there are a few people dedicated to truth and integrity in informing and educating the public.. 👍Juan Browne

[@timthomson7532]

@@jenniferwhitewolf3784 can you even explain communism ? Do you know what it means ? or are you just trying to throw shade without a inkling of real knowledge, like so many of your right wing comrades. Don’t bother replying, I’ll never visit this channel again

[@Kaymeron]

@@jenniferwhitewolf3784 thank God there is Fox News so we can get some facts😶

[@Kaymeron]

@@timthomson7532 it’s a shame that Juan opened the door for uninformed political comments like this. Stick to aviation, Juan

[@ramillerusa]

@@timthomson7532 Good get back to the basement where you belong! Take Sylvia with you.

[@nate0031]

67,000+ MW of generation at the Hyatt location sounds really high. That'd be over 67 gigawatts of generation. A quick Google seems to suggest around ~650 MW for the main Hyatt plant. I don't know though, what you referenced definitely shows the 67+ gigawatt number. Regardless, great videos and I appreciate the updates on this and the wildfires.

[@sorensolveig599]

Nathan, you're correct. That 67,000 MW is a HUGE error! The rated output of Hyatt (in 1978) was 678.75 MW. I think the machines have been rebuilt and up-rated, and may have a slightly higher rating now. I looked at several web sources, and the ratings are all over the map, but the figure above is right out of a DWR brochure I have when I visited the facility in 1978 (I never throw anything away!) By the way, the output from the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant is 2,256 MW and the largest power plant in the USA is the Grand Coulee facility at 6,808 MW (according to web sources).

[@kutto5017]

Yes the reported figure is about 5 percent of the generating capacity of the entire US grid... It's a bit on the high side.... About 800 mw is a bit closer to it...

[@kutto5017]

@@timb5280 what do you mean Tim?

[@MrThermoBob]

@@kutto5017 It is a reference to the movie 'Back to the Future' and the requirement of "1.21 Jigawatts" to operate the Delorean-based time machine. I.e, a big number.

[@ericplace367]

According to Wikipedia it’s 819MW

[@JVONROCK]

Watching countless videos about this, I finally feel I know something about this and what's ahead. Thank You from up the coast.

[@tedk2814]

my goodness, you provide such a clear and understandable overview of the damn and operating systems. I always enjoy your channel

[@Lukionest]

Well, one good thing has come out of all this - the infamous green spot on the face of the dam has gone away. Glad they finally got that leak fixed. (Just kidding.)

[@leebarnes655]

Not at all, what you are not seeing is green grass growing because it always dies in July and this is august. It will re-green itself with winter moisture as it always does. Situation normal for the green spot. This is NOT golf course grass, it's wheatgrass and wheat isn't green this time of year either. Please buy a clue. It is a spring from the backside of the dam and the higher ground feeding it on the right flank where the impeller is on display as a directional aid. The area contributing to the springs is all of that hill. It really greens up with melting snow on those hills behind the dam when the water exits via the spring on several horizontal steps of cobbles on the back face of the dam that typically become the green spot in late spring. With the water so low, we might see a fairly normal green spot without any water at the same level on the front side of the dam and for the first time in recent memory can actually dispense with the misinformation that any of that green spot moisture is coming from the wrong side of the dam. Several springs have always been there and they are all seasonal, which means they are dry right now. But even if they were wet the wheatgrass would still be dead brown like the rest of california.

[@LITEWRENCH]

A $100.00 worth of Round-Up keeps downstream people from panicking😂😂😂

[@markbrinton6790]

@Vax Not lmao, the dam isn't, or ever has been, leaking.

[@jcsrst]

That was the first thing I noticed from the arial view!

[@jeremyjones5836]

I don't know if there are any natural springs where the green spot is. It seems like too convenient of an excuse. I do know that there is a pretty good amount of water that leaks into the core block of the dam. It leaks through cracks in the concrete all throughout the core block.

[@nathanpizzo9444]

Hero status : ATTAINED. You are an AMAZING reporter and a trusted source of facts and information. We SUPPORT YOU!!!!

[@PAS_2020]

Fabulous graphics and clarification of what's going on. You rock❗️👍

[@Mrsournotes]

Good reporting Juan. I see a correction on the Hyatt Power Plant rated output as was printed on the slide. The 67,788 Megawatts should be 1/1,000 of that number, which would be about 680 Megawatts rated output. But the real point here is let’s get some rain and snow, lots!

[@craiggraham9061]

1/100th

[@Mrsournotes]

@@craiggraham9061 Oops!

[@jsullivan9238]

Dad (A DWR Engineer) confirmed tonight everything you have said Juan. Well Done!

[@just139999]

I did a lot of work on fireproofing on thermoleto power plant and the Hyatt power plant. Just about two years ago. Two very different places

[@davewitter6565]

I remember driving up the valley before they flooded it. I think it was 1965 and the Dam was under construction. Amazing photos to show the immense scale. Whiskey for drinking and Water worth flight for. Thanks for your amazing coverage.

[@Joe_Not_A_Fed]

A mouse tip I learned some time ago...regardless of size, the easiest mouse to see, is the inverted pointer. It's not upside down...the colors are inverted compared to whatever background it covers...giving the best color contrast to the background.

[@philhilbert1724]

Now would be a good time for DWR to do maintenance on everything but the river valve! So we don't have failures in the Future.

[@RICDirector]

Oh, now, don't bring common sense into it.

[@philhilbert1724]

Maintenance is a lot cheaper than rebuilding!! Or a major failure again!

[@davidscott5903]

That would be too easy and it wouldn't cause any emergency that would need legislators to come and rescue us with some new spending bills, so that probably won't happen.

[@gritsngranola]

Once again a well done report Juan. I learn so much about the dam watching this channel.

[@michaeldougfir9807]

First off, don't worry about "popping". It was never a problem for most of us! Second, with great thanks to you alone I now understand more than ever about the layout of Oroville Dam. And I now understand for the first time about the power plants, the fore- and afterbays, different functions of the past and present... and more. You are reliable, a good teacher, and a favorite channel. Thank you. Some of us in Susanville love you!! Now, what can you do about the smoke? Can we pump it out backwards in the evenings? Send it to Governor Newsome!

[@RICDirector]

Nah, but I'm looking into methods to precipitate it out to make Solyent Green II......drinkable smoke....;P Stay safe up there, folks, no telling what Dixie will pull off. :(

[@michaeldougfir9807]

@@RICDirector Always my key memory of that movie is the anguished cry, "SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!!" Sometimes I think of that when I see a garbage truck whiz by -- like it has somewhere important to go!

[@richb313]

Smoke is still bad but now we know why the power plants have been shut down. Interesting to know the details and how important the entire water level is to the rest of the state. Weather forecasting becomes much more difficult with changing weather patterns so will just have to wait and see what the winter precipitation brings.

[@brakel8r]

Im just glad the global headquarters did not have to be evacuated. In the 5 years I've known ya we went from the dam overflowing with possible failures to the power plant shutting down. Mother nature is very interesting to say the least

[@thalesnemo2841]

Mostly humanity being hoisted by its own petards!

[@UndulyBulky]

Global warming comes home.

[@brakel8r]

@@UndulyBulky .......

[@bluedeval03]

@@UndulyBulky earth’s natural cycle at play as well.

[@stevewallace1117]

You mean weather warfare is interesting.

[@jamiemale27]

thank you for taking the time to do these reports

[@linedriver69]

We PG&E still do pumped storage down at Helms Powerhouse you should do a story on that someday, we pump up the hill filling Courtright reservoir during the day when power prices are low and generate during high demand (Early morning before the sun comes up and late after the sun sets and we all come home needing more megawatts)

[@MichaelOnines]

What's the round-trip efficiency like?

[@Markle2k]

@@MichaelOnines Really good. It can reach 80-85% depending upon who is doing the telling. The Energy Information Administration says the US fleet of pumped hydro averages 79% monthly. A bit less than chemical batteries at 82%, but usually with higher capacity for longer run time. Batteries are much quicker on reaction time (full power from idle in milliseconds versus a couple minutes), so there is no one optimal solution. Plus, you can park batteries or mechanical flywheels anywhere. Pumped hydro requires the right geography.

[@MichaelOnines]

@@Markle2k number of cycles for batteries are so low, still. Thanks for the info, wasn't sure as I thought I had seen figures from the low 90s to low 70s.

[@MrTrashmasterfx]

@@Markle2k here were I,live we have one relativ new pumped storage that can switch from pump mode to production mode in around 31 seconds. And your efficiency is pretty much in ballpark with 80% +/- 2 %

[@Markle2k]

​@@MichaelOnines Cycles for batteries are not as low as you think. Flow batteries are essentially as long as the life cycle of a conventional power plant. Lithium batteries, with proper management (your phone/tablet/most laptops are not), is exceeding even manufacturers expectations. Are you familiar with Hornsdale in South Australia? This was the first megabattery for grid storage where Elon Musk bet the Federal Government of Australia that they could build it in 100 days, or it would be free. Tesla did not lose that bet. The contract was signed the 29th of September and it was connected to the grid on 1 December, 2017. 130 MWh of storage with 100 MW of power. While it was intended to just do storage for the colocated windfarm, it soon showed that it was capable of much more. Two weeks after going online, a coal-fired plant in Victoria, Australia tripped offline with no notice. Harnsdale's software noticed the outage and stepped in before the backup plant in Queensland could spin up. It was soon contracted to officially provide a reserve for this (called ancillary services). 90% of its capacity is devoted to its original purpose and the remainder to grid services. By the end of 2018, Hornsdale owned 55% of the frequency stabilization and ancillary services market in South Australia. This reduced costs by 90% for grid services to customers, because it doesn't use fuel and it has less overhead than a conventional reserve plant. By 2019, Hornsdale had already paid off its AU$90M price tag and was earning simple profit. Towards the end of 2019, the owner Neoen announced an expansion of 50% in capacity and power output. That was built out at a slower pace by an Australian contractor (for AU$80M) and went online in Q3 2020. There is now a larger 250 MW/MWh battery in the San Diego area and Australia is looking to put a bigger battery still in Victoria. Even conservative coal-loving Queensland is eyeing a battery of their own.

[@stevestepanis8283]

67,788 megawatts must be a typo the Hoover Dam only generates a little over 2,000 megs.Great job on reporting fire conditions and your aviation content is awesome great detail. Thanks stay safe

[@MattTrevett]

819 MVA per DWR website.

[@davidscott5903]

@@MattTrevett Do you mean 819MVA ? As in megavoltamps? Not millivoltamps?

[@zelthar]

Also keep in mind those figures, or the correct ones, are for max head pressure. Lower water lever means lower head and thus lower output. So it's not all or nothing. Lower water levels means reduced production. I'm sure there is probably a seasonal output curve graph somewhere that would nicely show this.

[@MattTrevett]

@@davidscott5903 It's a teeny, tiny micro dam. Yeah you are correct. Thank you.

[@davidscott5903]

@@MattTrevett That would be small!🤣

[@marklaw1434]

Juan, your coverage of Oroville brought me to your channel. Aviation, adventure bikes, and Aram Bedrosian kept me here as a Patrion supporter.

[@wbwright79]

simply one of the best investigative reporters on YT, period

[@realjeffgarrett]

“This ain’t CNN, thank goodness.” 🤣 I see you Juan 👀😉

[@realjeffgarrett]

@subliminalvibes I saw you comment this already. Did you just come here to defend your precious CNN??? 🤣 ALL the main stream media is garbage

[@realjeffgarrett]

@subliminalvibes No one said ANYTHING about Fox

[@trevor6721]

@@sub-vibes Hey dude, who said anything about Fox? What a shill!

[@brunoh9818]

@@realjeffgarrett But Juan said something about CNN. 1+1=2 and there is at least one video of Juan having Judge Jeanine on is hotel room TV. Can't get nuttier then Judge Jeanine.

[@oldcarnocar]

@@sub-vibes i remember when a guy could watch both...no now smh

[@TDCflyer]

This is actually proper journalism! Trustworthy information backed by the sources used, all rolled into an entertaining format, presented by a likable person. There's a reason why I subscribed to this channel...

[@davidcarroll8735]

I started my subscription with Blancolirio with the Orville dam event, always interested to see the updates!

[@hardlyb]

Even though I have moved out of California, back to my home state of Texas, I like to keep up with what's going on, and this channel is one of the few sources I can trust to try to explain anything as complicated as fires and water management. I sure hope you folks get some relief from the drought next winter. You won't get any relief from the fires without a state government that listens to people like Juan.

[@TakeDeadAim]

I live near Oshkosh and we're in the middle of historic rain. Interesting nonetheless and sending positive thoughts your way regarding both the fires and hoping you get much needed rain and snow this winter.

[@hickokfle]

just want to say, love your content. I live in Arkansas but the way you deliver information and stay informed to make videos is awesome!! thank you

[@ronpurcell9984]

Thanks Juan, that valve is huge. The workers behind the pressure wall give a good idea of the scale if it's accurate.

[@georgegately8911]

Obviously took considerable time to put this video together. Thanks & Well done.

[@nashguy207]

Thanks for the update and info Juan i would of never heard about this if it wasn't for you!

[@Yeah-right-2024]

*What the heck am I watching this for?... But i can't stop... grin. Good video*

[@alandpost]

6:00 67 GW is way too high. Wikipedia says 819 MW for Oroville Dam as a whole, which is much more plausible. For reference, the biggest hydro project in the world, the Three Gorges Dam, is 22.5 GW.

[@k7jeb]

I was wondering where that 67,788 MEGAWATTS came from...

[@MichaelOnines]

@@k7jeb he was reading it from a UC Davis fact sheet, may have been MWh annual instead of MW. Easy error to make when reading on the fly.

[@Markle2k]

@@MichaelOnines There are 8760 hours in a year. Hyatt has a max output of 645 MW or 537.5 MW with 5 out of 6 running full tilt. So MWh annual makes more sense. Still, that 67 MWh is like 1.2% utilization of nameplate capacity.

[@MichaelOnines]

@@Markle2k I found the UC Davis source page Juan was reading and it says MW. Obvious error by whoever made that page. No idea why they messed it up. Time to fire the intern.

[@sorensolveig599]

That 67,000 MW is a HUGE error! The rated output of Hyatt (in 1978) was 678.75 MW. I think the machines have been rebuilt and up-rated, and may have a slightly higher rating now. I looked at several web sources, and the ratings are all over the map, but the figure above is right out of a DWR brochure I have when I visited the facility in 1978 (I never throw anything away!) By the way, the output from the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant is 2,256 MW and the largest power plant in the USA is the Grand Coulee facility at 6,808 MW (according to web sources).

[@paulg2132]

When I was in radio, we called the foam on the mic a P-Popper. Thanks for addressing the mouse pointer size. I was curious about that. Great job as always!

[@norcaldeemichaels]

On the plus side, the “green spot” on the dam’s face is gone, so there’s that.

[@Gaea4U]

Praying for rain in NoCal. Excellent work with this video Juan!

[@skyhawksailor8736]

Just curious, I know the government agency in charge of the Colorado River recalculated the parameters of the daily release of water after the 83 flood, which caused the Hoover dam to use the overflow for the first time in its history since it tested the system, and almost caused the loss of the Glen Canyon dam. Instead of making the calculations, or a requirement for above average snow pack years, they did a long term calculations, to decide what the release has to be for the whole year. This has led to the reservoirs behind the dams to slowly be drained over long periods of drought. After the catastrophic miscalculations of release of water with an above average snow pack, which led to the loss of the spillway, did they change the parameters for daily release on the Orville Dam, no matter how small the snow pack was?

[@davidscott5903]

Of course not.

[@aggibson74]

0:34 "this ain't CNN.....thank goodness" that's gold!

[@DJ-yu9oj]

@@sub-vibes you can't handle the truth?

[@constructioneerful]

@@DJ-yu9oj you know Fox is daft.

[@jsullivan05]

@@DJ-yu9oj Well he isn't getting it from FOX either so idk what you're on about lol

[@davidsquall351]

@@DJ-yu9oj FOX,CNN etc. all the mainstream media has the same scriptwriters.

[@brunoh9818]

@@DJ-yu9oj Faux News thinks climate change is fake news and a Chinese hoax. Juan is talking exactly about climate change, the lack of rain in most parts of CA, although he avoids mentioning it because of his political orientation. Dixie fire (3rd largest in CA history and growing) coverage coming up next? Reason? Climate change. Any more questions D J?

[@savearhino369]

i always love an oroville update. oroville spillway disaster a few years back was how i found your channel . this was thorough and easy to understand . thanks , Juan.

[@cpcattin]

Thanks Juan for a documentary style analysis at the Orville Dam. It sounds to me like a number of people think the Feather River will never see rain or snowfall in amounts sufficient to fill the reservoirs. People need to understand the cyclical nature of the Northern Sierra weather. It seems as if all memory of the numerous catastrophic floods of Yuba City, Sacramento, Marysville etc. are gone. Like Hoover dam, Glen Canyon Dam, Oroville dam and Shasta dams are storage dams intended to hold back on the wet years and release on the dry years. I was so lucky to visit Hoover dam for the first time in 1983. The dam had storage to its top. The emergency overflows were more than enough, Most dams on the Columbia are run of the river dams. They do not store water for use later. Only Mica Dam at 700 ft of landfill could actually effect the flow on the 200,000 acre feet of storage. At 265,000 cfps without a huge cyclical swing Most dams get just what they need.

[@steeveomcjameson8673]

They can’t win in Oroville.. too much or not enough

[@waterman308]

excellent presentation. and what an irony from just a few years ago... crazy.

[@tomwilliam5118]

Was wondering when you're getting around to the Orville Reservoir

[@stephenyoungblood3683]

Honores to meet you last week

[@kurtak9452]

Excellent debriefing, glad I moved to Alaska last year.....

[@Paul1958R]

Juan, Thank you for that Oroville update! Here in MA we had an extremely rainy July with some areas getting 13+ inches of rain and some flooding. Quabbin Reservoir is at 96.4 percent and Wachusett Reservoir is at 91.1 with spillways open at both. Paul (in MA)

[@shaunroberts9361]

I really cannot even seeing the lake recovering over this . I mean it going to take years of good rain. Good job Juan. Outstanding Journalism for sure.

[@mr2fyre]

Or another 2017.

[@Sshooter444]

The lake was designed for exactly this scenario

[@lightningdemolition1964]

@@REALChannel99 that foot and a half is about as much as we get here around Oroville in an entire year.

[@larsfridtjofnrheim1638]

The West and CA got 2 choice, fix or keep the water problem! CA got 85,9 m acre foot, Coloumbia river dumps 191,3 m foot into The Pasific every year. Move some water (10%). Make a 365m long tunnel from Red Bluff (Delaware Aqueduct tunnel is 86 miles). NV, AZ, Mexico can then keep more Colorado water (5 million acree feet a year).

[@craignehring]

Thank you Juan, great reporting as usual Bless you and yours

[@jlkennedyjr]

You are too good for CNN. You use words and concepts that are above the 5th grade level. Very refreshing. Excellent presentation.

[@john2k24]

That was a dam good video, Juan!

[@glenjones9758]

Crazy that a few years back downstream populations were being evacuated......now here we are......thank you for the explanations Juan......hope to see you in Reno this year....stay safe

[@glenjones9758]

P.S. California is so mismanaged IMO

[@sfranger50]

Juan, I have a great concern that perhaps the draught problems we are facing in California are being exacerbated by poor operational practices by those who are responsible for managing water flows in our reservoirs. In your opinion, is there any evidence of mis-management of water releases in our reservoirs, whether accidental, merely negligent or, heaven forbid, purposeful ? I don't know if you can speak only about the Oroville dam or have greater knowledge about water resources state-wide, but I would value any opinions you feel comfortable sharing. Thank you for all the work you do !

[@heidiholtz4382]

Fantastic work. Thank you so much. I am just learning about your channel now and you have a new, grateful, NorCal fan.

[@ObserverOfPakleds]

This is an excellent year to do some maintenance on dams in California. Do it, do it now!

[@brianbiddle7590]

Oh no they wont do anything. They will wait for the lakes to be full than let all the water out to work on the damn. Look at lake perris its been like that for years.

[@Markle2k]

@@brianbiddle7590 Because it posed an earthquake hazard.

[@brianbiddle7590]

@@Markle2k yes and? They still haven't fixed it.

[@davidnelson6893]

Thank goodness for Juan!!

[@fraukatze3856]

It’s barely rained this year from late spring till now here in BC (in Victoria). There’s lots of fires burning in the interior. We had record breaking high temperatures in June. A bad year for the whole west coast area.

[@craftsoda]

also minimal snow pack this year in N Cal., which is the major source of water supply. find a current picture of Mt. Shasta. It has almost NO snow cover.

[@richardburguillos3118]

Great update. I was waiting for one of your dam updates! Learn something new with each one. Never knew about the River system. Now, thanks to you we have a better understanding. Thanks!

[@QuidproMoto]

Your looking at the fish screens. Those are what you see. The inlet gates are behind those screens at different elevations.

[@LouT1501]

Yes, thank goodness! See ya here!!

[@michealtull9033]

Your an Amazing guy Juan . Glad your out there .👍👍👍👍😎

[@Brommear]

You are so knowledgeable on so many topics! Most interesting video. Greetings from Patagonia.

[@doneckford1189]

Sounds like a good opportunity to do some inspections and repairs

[@skipgetelman3418]

Your ability to research and explain is mind boggling

[@johnstreet819]

and mind enlightening

[@williamhaynes7089]

best video on this subject i have seen

[@JETWTF]

Oroville Dam and the rest of the complex shows the serious issue the US has with infrastructure. They use it with just enough maintenance to keep it running and then it catastrophically fails when basic maintenance proves inadequate. Major fire due to equipment failure, Baffle falls apart and not replaced or modernized leads to an almost deadly event. Spillway not properly maintained almost leading to a catastrophe. All could have been prevented with a little more than basic maintenance, add some replacement and modernization to the maintenance schedule. US infrastructure maintenance is like adding oil to your car when it runs low and call it good... Until your engine seizes.

[@SandrA-hr5zk]

But just think of how much time and inconvenience it would be to take it offline for repairs without catastrophic failure. All I ever hear about infrastructure is how much money would be lost if something was taken away for 24 hours, so the idea of actually upgrading or replacing infrastructure would just be impossible.

[@JETWTF]

@@SandrA-hr5zk /sarcasm noted and correct. "Oh how expensive to take it offline!" "Oh how expensive it is to upgrade!" Stupid as F arguments, take it offline when not required and upgrade now to save money in the future is by far cheaper than the save a penny now and spend a dollar later mentality. Oroville Dam maintenance to prevent the spillway failure may have cost 20 million 20 years ago to cut out the drain pipes and replace and another 10 million to resurface the whole spillway... Instead they let it go to failure and the cost was in the hundreds of millions. Save a penny now and spend a dollar later.

[@benoithudson7235]

The 67,788 MW figure is drastically off. The Three Gorges Dam is the largest in the world at 22,500 MW. The actual figure seems to be 819 MW for the Hyatt plant.

[@mooorecowbell4222]

Agree! 819 mW @16,950 cubic feet per second

[@benoithudson7235]

@@mooorecowbell4222 : there's like 10 people in the comments mentioning this, I got ninja'd pretty hard. Apparently the actual unit corresponding to that number is MWh annually on an average year.

[@richc47us]

Excellent Job Juan!

[@moleisrich1]

A captain and a hydro engineer. What else you got. Lol good job on the video and detail explanation. Scary stuff.

[@Truckee-td5ud]

I was hoping for this update. Thank you

[@tomdchi12]

Glad you're mentioning hydro pumped storage. It's a critical part of shifting away from polluting power sources and integrating more solar and wind power - when excess power is generated by those sources, it can be stored in pumped hydro then called back when the sun is down and the wind is calm. All batteries are inherently inefficient. If the reversible units at Hyatt are not the newer variable speed type, then inefficiency may be a major factor in the decision to not use the facility for power storage due to high cost of storage operation versus low cost of current wind/solar dropping. (While hydro IS solar, all reservoirs have an impact and stealing from Peter to pay Paul may leave us behind on the whole in being good conservators of the natural environment we all need to survive.) Sites like the Eagle Mountain former mine provide storage capacity without impacting existing waterways and their ecosystems.

[@moxievintage1390]

I for one love your mouse! Fascinating look at the Plant! California has changed a lot since I grew up in Santa Cruz...I shake my head in sadness...Living in the Pac NW now......which has frantically tried to keep from NOT becoming California lol. We're doing a pretty good job. Altho last year wildfire smoke was at an AQI of 700 in my area, which was the WORST in the WORLD for over TWO WEEKS. People are STILL suffering the consequences. We literally had to seal ourselves in our homes for 10+ days--as in, seal all doors and windows and not go outside AT ALL for that entire time. It was very surreal. If it happens again, I am DEFINITELY flying out of the area before it gets here! We had 2 days warning but we got an inverted meteorological system at the same time and BOOM, once in a lifetime situation over much of OR/WA ..I do so worry about our scorching planet...... Thank you, Juan.

[@Konabish]

That's an eye-opener! Thanks, Juan.

[@stevenmacdonald9619]

Is my pop filter big enough? Eat my mouse!!!! HELL YEAH, SUCK IT UP FOLKS!! 🤣🤣🤣 You tell em Juan!! 'I THOUGHT YOU'D BE BIGGER!!'

[@kennysherrill6542]

Your so right Juan, the powers to be don't want their Incompetents known. Keep up your channel and please keep us updated. 👍👍👍👍👍❤🇺🇸

[@landsail]

Juan, that info sheet you used for the Hyatt Power plant listed 67,800 MWHs (megawatt hours) . The actual capacity is 829 MWs. Compare to Hoover Dam capacity of 2,080 MWs. That dam is producing quite a bit less due to Lake Mead being down 162 ft as of today. It’s dropping, but not the ft/day like Oroville. Mark

[@SidebandSamurai]

Hey Juan. Use mouse trails. It's useful in a situation such as this. In post editing you could zoom it in as well.

[@Chris_In_Texas]

Just amazing that just 4 year ago how different of a picture it was there at the lake. From emergency flooding and close to catastrophic loss of the emergency spillway to not enough water to run power on the inlets! ⛈🌧

[@feltro19]

Thx Jaun it’s an adventure living in California to say the least

[@BackyardBeeKeepingNuevo]

I found your channel a few years ago because of your reporting on Oroville Dam when the spillway broke. Oroville has gone full circle from overflow to imminent muddle puddle state.

[@briangarrow448]

I can drive by 3 natural gas turbine power plants here in Western Washington within 50 miles from my home and I can judge the power needs of California by how many units are operating. These plants sell power to the grid to supply California during high demand periods.

[@spensinthevalley3099]

Its kinda of sad California is killing our resources too. I'm pretty sure we export water to them as well and also to our hatchery salmon.

[@n6mz]

00:36 THANK GOODNESS TO THE 23rd POWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep up the excellent work.

[@dansimpson6844]

On the bright side... It appears that the Greeeeeen Spot has been vanquished! :)

[@geofiggy]

JB, for those not happy with the Largest size of the mouse cursor, maybe they'll be happy with you turning the "mouse trails" on, even though I prefer not to use that. Once again thanks for YOUR consistent detailed updates. Makes us feel smarter after we watch your excellent reporting. Take care and be safe. 🖖🏽🤟🏽

[@donmoore7785]

Juan - what you said about the negative inflow #'s you pointed out indicating evaporation exceeding inflow is not the correct interpretation. The explanation is, INFLOW is a calculated value from outflow (known) and difference in water elevation (measured), as well as a correction for evaporation. Errors (noise) in the lake elevation measurement cause the negative values that you see. Evaporation as I recall is in the single to double digits of CFS - not hundreds as would be required to explain that data. And INFLOW wouldn't go negative from evaporation only every few hours but be positive the other two or three. They correct the inflow to reduce these errors by averaging over the last 4 hours and this also modifies INFLOW. So if it was overestimated in the previous three hours, in the fourth hour the value may be negative so overall it averages out. The result of this is, if you calculate how much volume should be gained (assuming inflow exceeds outflow and evap) over some period such as 48 hours, using the INFLOW data points (including the negative ones), you will get a result that matches the difference in the VOLUME field. I crunched the data back in 2017 and verified this, and an engineer who knew their system explained the averaging they use. Elevation measurement is its own topic - I believe they have several measurement locations across the lake, and compensate for factors such as wind and waves. Imagine measuring that huge lake to within a fraction of an inch, and how errors in measurement can throw off calculating INFLOW, which relies on accurately measuring a change of volume (determined by a function that relates elevation to lake volume). Glad you covered this news - I knew this was close to happening.

[@debbienorton1487]

Thanks Juan, You are the only person I know of that covers this

[@chrisgossman6512]

This ain't CNN. You got that right. Thanks for sharing JB.

[@dash_riprock4227]

Hard times. Pray things get better

[@Ry____]

The MW number is wrong, 67,788 MW = 68 GW. The largest historical demand of CA was ~52 GW (roughly). Those generating units are about 600-700 MW total, NOT 67,000 MW

[@wgmskiing]

Came here to say this. Someone missed something in translation on that site, other sources indeed report about 600-700MW

[@jackgibbons6013]

My speculation is that the unit listed is wrong, they probably meant MWH.

[@paulak7939]

Amazing to see how big your channel has become !!!

[@asadzaidi6188]

At 06:20 I think there's a mistake in the numbers as 67,000 MW is a lot of power, enough to energize entire cities or more as about 1 MW can power 200 homes. It would be closer to 670 MW as it looks from the size of the dam

[@markotrieste]

I guess they put a comma instead of a dot.

[@asadzaidi6188]

@@markotrieste then it means 67.5 MW which is even less than the generator downstream.

[@danheaven9768]

At 5:28, Juan gets his explaination of outflow vs. river release precisely backwards. Outflow is what leaves Lake Oroville while river release is what gets fed back into the Feather River from the overall Oroville-Thermalito Complex. If outflow is about 3100 cfs and river release is about 1800 cfs, that means that a net 1300 cfs is being retained in the various Thermalito reservoirs.

[@GA-1st]

Excellent, comprehensive report. We're in a tough situation here in California right now. Juan: Are you under a stay-at-home advisory because air quality at this time?

[@blancolirio]

no. But I am.

[@GA-1st]

@@blancolirio I know in the Grass Valley area it's at least "very unhealthy." Crazy there's no stay-at-home advisory.

[@kwils6685]

@@blancolirio hi Juan I just thought I'd let you know this isn't a fix but it is a decent work around for your mouse pointer problem in OBS. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o6Xbln2CnNJlabM

[@mellissadalby1402]

You do a good job Mr. Juan. Thanks