a runoff the river hydro power plant does not have effective storage. It only makes use of the discharge through the river, so it is essentially different from operating characteristics of a storage type hydro power plant. However the peaking or non peaking characteristic of a hydro power plant depends on its use by the electric grid. Most of the hydro power plants are peaking plants due to ease of load management, start-up and shutting down characteristics.

Operation of ROR hydel plant is not based on the rule curve as is done for storage power plants. There is no storage concept in ROR. Thus, the operation is controlled by the actual discharge available in the river.