NDRC Approves Heihe River Hydropower Station

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced on February 29, 2008, that it has approved the Maoergai hydropower station project. The station is the third of five projects with two reservoirs on Heihe River in southwestern China's Sichuan Province.

The power station will be invested and built by Sichuan Power Development Company Limited of Sinohydro Corporation (Chengdu, China). The station will generate power and supply water to irrigation areas in Chengdu and Dujiangyan , along with the Zipingu Water Control project. According to the NDRC, the power station will have three 140-megawatt (MW) Francis hydraulic turbine-generating units with an annual average power output of 1.69 billion kilowatt-hours. The station will manly comprise the head project, the water diversion system and the diversion-type powerhouse. The head project is composed of a 147-meter-tall earth core rockfill dam, a 16.15-meter-long water-diversion tunnel, a spillway and an ecological flow-discharge facility. The reservoir's normal pool level is 2,133 meters above sea level, and its capacity is 535 million cubic meters, including 443 million cubic meters of live storage. The total investment will be nearly $1 billion, excluding the associated power transmission project.

Construction of the Maoergai hydropower station could alleviate the power shortage in the Sichuan grid, improve the reliability of the grid's power supply, and promote the social and economic development of the minority region.

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