Massive New Wudongde Hydropower Station Now at Full Operation

Guangzhou - With its 12th and final generator officially generating electricity after a 72-hour trial run on June 16, the Wudongde Hydropower Station, a major part of the West-East Electricity Transmission Project, has been fully connected to the power grids of China Southern Power Grid and today has been placed into full operation.
The Wudongde Hydropower Project, located in the lower reaches of the Jinsha River, between Luquan County (Yunnan Province) and Huidong County (Sichuan Province), is expected to be the fourth biggest hydroelectric power plant in China.
The project is being developed by Jinsha River Yunchuan Hydropower Development Company, in which China Three Gorges Corporation has a 70% share and the Sichuan and Yunnan provinces hold equity shares of 15% each.
The plant will have an installed capacity of 10.2GW and an annual output capacity of 38.93bn kWh. The overall investment in the project is estimated to be CNY100bn  or approximately $15 billion.
As the seventh largest of its kind around the globe and the fourth largest in China, Wudongde Hydropower Station plays the role of a backbone in supplying power along the West-East electricity transmission lines.
It is equipped with 12 generator sets of 850,000 KW, totaling installed capacity to 10.2 million KW. When all the sets are in full operation, the power generated during one single day is enough to meet the needs of 300,000 residential consumers for one year, with an average annual power generation capacity of 38.91 GWh.
The electricity generated from the Wudongde Hydropower Station, except for those reserved for the local people’s growing consumption needs at Yunnan, will be transmitted to Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, giving timely power resources to meet the unending electrical demand in the key southern five provinces.
The power consumption in the five southern provinces continues to surge this year as the economy – post-COVID-19 – continues to return to full measure as large-scale industries resume full production, and moreover, there is a heat wave surging throughout China and electricity demand has reached a record high with signs of power shortages beginning to surface.
According to the latest data from China Southern Power Grid senior managers, the electricity consumption of its key five southern provinces in May increased 16.3% year on year and 26.7% over the same period during Year 2019.
Since its commissioning in June last year, the cumulative power supply of Wudongde Hydropower Station has reached 24.417 GWh, equivalent to eight months of consumption in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province.
As of June 15, CSG has transmitted a total of 16.36 GWh to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area through ultra-high voltage lines constructed for the multi-terminal VSC-HVDC demonstration project, representing a reduction of 14.14 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions in Guangdong province.