First Generator Unit of Wudongde Hydropower Station Goes into Operation

The first generator unit of the Wudongde Hydropower Station, located on the border of Southwest China's Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, went into service on June 29.

With a total installed capacity of 10.2 million kW, the station is the world's seventh and China's fourth largest hydropower plant.

All the generator units are scheduled to begin operation by July 2021.

A 10 million kW super-large hydropower project authorized by the 18th CPC National Congress held in 2012, the station is a big part of China's national West-East Electricity Transmission project.

It has a concrete double-curvature arch dam with a maximum height of 270 meters and a reservoir with a total storage capacity of nearly 7.41 billion cubic meters of water and a regulated storage capacity of 3 billion cubic meters.

With a total investment of about 120 billion yuan ($16.97 billion), the Wudongde Hydropower Station is the first of the four cascade power stations that will span the downstream of the Jinsha River.

Its construction started in December 2015 and on completion the plant will have an estimated annual power generating capacity of 38.91 billion kilowatt-hours.

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)