Pumped Storage Power Station with World's Highest Rated Head Breaks Ground

The Tiantai Pumped Storage Power Station in East China's Zhejiang Province, with the world's highest rated head of its kind, broke ground on Dec 28.

The step reflects efforts of China Three Gorges Construction Engineering Corporation, a subsidiary of China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG) to serve China's clean energy development, promote green and low-carbon transformation of energy and contribute to achieving the country's goals of peaking carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and reaching carbon neutrality by 2060.

Located in Tantou town and Yongxi village, Tiantai County, the station is a key project of the country's medium- and long-term development plan for pumped storage energy and the first of its kind to be built by CTG during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

With a total installed capacity of 1.7 million kilowatts the plant will be installed with four 425,000-kW reversible hydro-generator units and upper and lower reservoirs, a water transmission system, an underground plant and a sand barrage.

The station has a head rated at 724 meters, the highest in the world. Its unit capacity is tops of its kind in China.

A bird's-eye view of the Tiantai Pumped Storage Power Station in Zhejiang Province [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

Once operational, the station is expected to generate 1.7 billion kilowatt-hours of power annually, an equivalent to the energy obtained by burning 520,000 metric tons of coal and a reduction of about 1.04 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. It will promote green and low-carbon development, optimize local energy structure, improve infrastructure and boost economic development in the region.

It will also play a role in regulation of peak and valley periods, frequency and phasing, energy storage and emergency backup.

(Executive editor: Niu Yilin)