Three Gorges Dam prepares for flood season

China Yangtze Power, a subsidiary of China Three Gorges Corp (CTG), has been advancing the planned pre-flood drawdown of Three Gorges Dam in an orderly manner in April as part of its efforts to get fully prepared for flood season.

On April 19, the real-time discharge of Three Gorges Dam reached 12,000 cubic meters per second. As a result, its water level dropped to 160 meters and the accumulated flood control storage capacity exceeded 13.1 billion cubic meters, accounting for 59 percent of the total flood control storage capacity of 22.15 billion cubic meters.

Since its water level began dropping this year, the average daily discharge of Three Gorges Dam has been consistently controlled at a rate of no less than 7,000 cubic meters per second and gradually increased to 10,300 cubic meters per second since April. This will ensure a sufficient water supply for the agricultural production in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

In response to the needs of the electricity grid, Three Gorges Hydropower Station has also continuously increased power supply during the first quarter, with a record-high cumulative power generation of 16.49 billion kWh, an increase of 3.5 percent from the same period last year.

The increasing power generation has helped meet the demand in Hubei Province, Zhejiang Province and Shanghai in their fight against the pandemic, providing a strong force for resumed production in those areas.