China Datang's Guanyinyan Hydropower Station to Begin Operations in Fourth-Quarter 2014

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources China (Beijing, China)--Datang Guanyinyan Hydropower Development Company Limited's (DGHDC) (Kunming, Yunnan) 3,000-megawatt (MW) Guanyinyan Hydropower Station is ready to begin operations in December 2014, and the entire project is expected to be completed about half a year ahead of schedule, according to a recent statement from Li Xiaoqun, chief engineer of the DGHDC.

As the last project in the eight-step cascade development scheme planned for the midstream of the Jinsha River, Guanyinyan Hydropower Station is the largest hydropower station of China Datang Corporation (Beijing) that is under construction. The power station is located at the left-bank boundary of Huaping County of Lijiang City, in the Yunnan province, and Rehe District of Panzhihua City, in the Sichuan province. The project mainly comprises a 159-meter-high concrete gravity main dam; a 71-meter-high earth-core side dam at its left bank, which will form a reservoir with a storage capacity of about 2 billion cubic meters under the normal pool level (NPL), which is 1,134 meters above sea level; and a powerhouse furnished with five hydraulic-turbine generating units, each of 600 MW.

According to the approval, total investment in the project will be about $3.86 billion. The main purpose of the project will be power generation, together with other diversified benefits in flood control, water supply, navigation and tourism. Upon completion, the project will have an annual average output of about 12 billion kilowatt-hours.

Construction of the open diversion tunnel kicked off on December 28, 2008. On January 6, 2011, the project achieved the mainstream river diversion. The main works for the project kicked off after that. On January 20, 2013, the open diversion tunnel was cut off, and the main dam later was used for water retaining.

Presently, the main works of the project, including the left-bank dam, right-bank dam and powerhouse, are all progressing smoothly. As of the end of May 2013, the project had completed 19.72 million cubic meters of earth and rock excavation, accounting for about 64% of the total, and 6.05 million cubic meters of concrete placement for the main works, accounting for about 67% of the total.

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