Courtright Reservoir is a reservoir in Fresno County, California. The reservoir is at an elevation of 8,170 feet in the Sierra National Forest, in the Sierra Nevadas. The reservoir is formed by Courtright Dam on Helms Creek and has a capacity of 123,300 acre-feet. The dam is composed of rock-fill and is 315 feet tall, measured from the crest to the original streambed. It was completed in 1958 and is owned by Pacific Gas and Electric. Its sole purpose is hydroelectricity production. Fresno County is a county located in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California, south of Stockton and north of Bakersfield. ... A man-made lake in Keukenhof, Netherlands A lake is a body of water or other liquid of considerable size contained on a body of land. ... ... This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... ... Fresno County is a county located in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California, south of Stockton and north of Bakersfield. ... Sierra National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located on the western slope of central Sierra Nevada in California. ... This article is about the mountain range in the Western United States. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is the utility that provides power to most of Northern California. ... Hydroelectricity is the worlds most important renewable energy source The Nagarjuna dam & hydro-electric plant, India Hydroelectricity is electricity produced by hydropower. ...

In addition to conventional hydroelectricity production, Courtright Reservoir also serves as the upper reservoir in a pumped storage hydroelectric system. Wishon Reservoir, a couple of miles downstream, is the lower reservoir. During times of peak demand for electricity, which is also when it is most expensive, water is drained from Courtright Reservoir, run through the 1,212 MW Helms Power Plant and empties into Wishon Reservoir. When demand and prices for electricity are low, water is pumped from Wishon Reservoir to Courtright Reservoir using the power plant's reversible turbines. Interestingly Helms Power Plant is 1,000 feet underground in a chamber carved out of solid granite at the north end of Wishon Lake. It is similar to Southern California Edison's Eastwood Powerhouse near Shaver Lake, which is also a pumped-storage plant. Pumped storage hydroelectricity is a method of storing and producing electricity to supply high peak demands by moving water between reservoirs at different elevations. ... Lightning strikes during a night-time thunderstorm. ... A power station (also power plant) is a facility for the generation of electric power. ... WWII era ship propulsion turbine A turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid flow. ... Close-up of granite from Yosemite National Park, valley of the Merced River Quarrying granite for the Mormon Temple, Utah Territory. ... Southern California Edison, the largest subsidiary of Edison International (NYSE: EIX), is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California. ... Shaver Lake Shaver Lake is a lake in Fresno County, California on Stevenson Creek, located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains at an elevation of 1,675 meters (5,500 ft). ...

References

• United States Forest Service
• United States Geological Survey
• California Public Utilities CommissionPDF (84.8 KiB)