The No. 8 unit of the 16 GW Baihetan hydropower station, the world’s largest hydropower station under construction according to developer China Three Gorges Corporation, officially started commercial operation on Sept. 22.
The commissioning, after a 72-hour trial operation, marks the fact that 12 of the 16 turbine-generator units, the world’s largest in terms of capacity for a single unit at 1 GW each, have been put into operation. Cumulative power generation from the facility is over 41 billion kWh.
The Baihetan hydropower station straddles the provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan in southwest China and is located on the Jinsha River in the upper section of the Yangtze River. It is a mega project in China’s west-east power transmission program, which aims to transmit electricity from the resource-rich western part of China to energy-hungry regions in eastern China.
After reaching full operation, the Baihetan hydropower station would be the world’s second-largest of its kind, after China’s Three Gorges Dam at 22.5 GW. The station can generate 62.4 billion kWh of electricity every year, cutting the usage of 19.68 million tons of coal and reducing emissions equivalent to 51.6 million tons of carbon dioxide.
Baihetan is said to be one of China’s largest and most challenging engineering projects. According to CTGC, the project’s main structures consist of the dam, flood discharge structures, water diversion and power generation facilities. The dam is a double-curvature arch dam with a maximum height of 277 m, a crest elevation of 827 m, a crest width of 13 m and a maximum bottom width of 72 m.
