DALIAN, March 23  -- The third generator unit at the Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Station, the first nuclear power plant in northeast China, went into operation on Monday.

The generator has an installed capacity of 1.12 million kilowatts, the same as the plant's other two generators, which were put into operation in February and November of 2013 respectively, according to the Liaoning Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Co., Ltd, which runs the plant.

Construction on the first phase of the project, which features four power generation units to be built at a cost of 50 billion yuan (8.13 billion U.S. dollars), began in 2007 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2015.

The third generator unit, which uses self-designed CPR-1000 pressurized water reactor technology, can satisfy a quarter of the annual electricity consumption in the port city of Dalian, Liaoning Province, where the plant is located.

Compared with coal-fired power plant, the third generator unit will save annual coal consumption by 2.5 million tonnes, emit 58,000 fewer tonnes of sulfur dioxide and 6.03 million fewer tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

When in full operation, the four units will generate 30 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, accounting for 16 percent of the total electricity consumption in 2012 in Liaoning Province, an industrial powerhouse of China.