Download Excel File List of Largest Hydroelectric Power Stations

The Three Gorges Dam in Hubei, China, has the world's largest instantaneous generating capacity (22,500 MW), with the Itaipu Dam in Brazil/Paraguay in second place (14,000 MW). Despite large differences in installed capacity of these two power stations, during the course of an entire year they generate equal amounts of electrical energy - Itaipu 98.2 TWh in 2012 and Three Gorges 98.1 TWh in 2012, because the Three Gorges experiences six months per year when there is very little water available to generate power, while the Paraná River that feeds the Itaipu has a much lower seasonal variance in flow. In the same time, due to no-stable of feeds, a power output of The Three Gorges expects up to 125 TWh in some years. The Three Gorges (22,500 MW - 32 × 700 MW and 2 × 50 MW) is operated jointly with the much smaller Gezhouba Dam (2,715 MW), the total generating capacity of this two-dam complex is 25,215 MW. The Itaipu on the Brazil-Paraguay border has 20 generator units with overall 14,000 MW of installed capacity, however the maximum number of generating units allowed to operate simultaneously cannot exceed 18 (12,600 MW).