Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, February 10, 2004
Four Hydropower stations to be built on Jinsha River
A plan to add two more "Three Gorges projects" along the Yangtze River has been started, said Li Yong'an, general manager of China Yangtze Three Gorges Project Development Co., on February 9. The company will build four step hydropower stations along the Jinsha River section in the upper reaches of the Yangtze, namely, Xiluodu, Xiangjiaba, Wudongde and Baihetan.
A plan to add two more "Three Gorges projects" along the Yangtze River has been started, said Li Yong'an, general manager of China Yangtze Three Gorges Project Development Co., on February 9. The company will build four step hydropower stations along the Jinsha River section in the upper reaches of the Yangtze, namely, Xiluodu, Xiangjiaba, Wudongde and Baihetan. The four stations will boast a total installation capacity up to 38.5 million KW, both their total installation capacity and electricity-generating amount exceeding that of the two "Three Gorges" projects. A fund of 2.59 billion yuan will be put in this year.
Being a section in the upper-reaches of the Yangtze mainstream, the Jinsha River has a storage of water energy reaching 112 million KW, about 16 percent of the nation's total.
In October 2002, The State Council approved the first-batch of the project Xiluodu and Xiangjiaba stations. Preparations for early-stage work have been kicked off with an investment of 1 billion yuan injected in 2003. The construction for the Xiluodu station is now in full swing and 23 construction items had already been started last year. A fund of 2.3 billion yuan is earmarked for the station this year. According to the plan, Xiluodu station will realize the damming by 2008, and 2014 will see the first-batch of generator sets put into operation for electricity. Xiangjiaba station is planned to dam by 2007 with electricity generated by 2012. Meanwhile, the exploration and planning work for Wudongde and Baihetan stations have been put busily underway now.
Development of the four step stations would turn the Jinsha River into the biggest base for the west-east electricity transmission. Besides, Xiluodu and Xiangjiaba could help retain silts to reduce the sand sedimentation in the Three Gorges reservoir. They can also manage to increase water flow in dry season to increase the power-generating capacity of the Three Gorges and Gezhouba stations in the lower reaches.