The Lianghekou mixed pumped-storage power station over the Yalong River, the largest of its kind in the world, broke ground on Dec 29, 2022, in Southwest China's Sichuan Province.
State Development & Investment Corp., Ltd. (SDIC) is responsible for the project.
The Lianghekou mixed pumped-storage power station over the Yalong River breaks ground on Dec 29, 2022, in Southwest China's Sichuan Province. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
Located in Yajiang County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the new power station has a total investment of about 8.5 billion yuan (about $1.23 billion) and relies on the Lianghekou and the Yagen cascade reservoirs.
It is the first of China's mixed pumped-storage project in national large-scale clean energy bases to break ground and the highest-altitude large-scale pumped-storage project in the country.
Built at 3,000 meters above sea level, the power plant is designed to be installed with four 300,000-kilowatt reversible generator units. Together with the Lianghekou Hydropower Station that has an installed capacity of 3 million kW, the two power stations are expected to have a total installed capacity of 4.2 million kW.
Home to rich new energy resources, the Lianghekou region has more than 20 million kW of wind and solar energy. However, power generation based on such new energy is intermittent, volatile and random. The Lianghekou Hydropower Station has been playing a role as a "regulator" of about 3.5 million kW of new energy.
Given its unique pumping and power generation capacity, the new mixed pumped-storage power station with an installed capacity of 1.2 million kW is expected to support new energy-based power generation and will help improve new energy consumption.
Through the integrated development of hydropower and wind and solar energy, the Lianghekou mixed pumped-storage power station and the Lianghekou Hydropower Station are expected to turn about 7 million kW of the unstable wind and solar energy-based power into a smooth, stable, and high-quality power supply.
The power will then be sent to other regions, which will drive the coordinated and centralized development of the water, wind and solar energy of the Yalong River basin.
The Lianghekou mixed storage-power station is the first pumped-storage project in Sichuan. Its construction laid a solid foundation for building of the Lianghekou Hydropower Station-centered water, wind and solar complementary green and clean renewable energy demonstration base. It is also a model of the integrated development of a water, wind and solar energy-based power project.
In addition, the project will be a positive exploration of the new-type power system with new energy as the main part.
Once operational, the project is expected to boost regional economic and social development and promote rural vitalization.
(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)
