Yangtze River Stories (9) Three Gorges Dam creates over 1.1 trillion kwh cumulative power: report (3)

Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River of China, as world’s largest hydropower station, saw its cumulative power generation reached 1.14 trillion kilowatt-hours (kwh) by July 31, equivalent to one-sixth of the country’s gross generation in 2017.

Equipped with 34 hydraulic generating units, the Three Gorges Dam currently has the world’s largest electric generating capacity of 22,500 megawatts.

All 34 generators were in operation on July 31, with a gross power generation of 22.24 million kilowatts and an average output of about 540 million kilowatts a day, equivalent to power consumption of 100 million households per day, noted Zhao Xiaoyu, duty director of the dam.

The Three Gorges power station has run for 15 years with safety, stability and high-efficiency since the first batch of units were put into operation in 2003, conducive to alleviating power tension in east coast areas of China, and giving a boost to the Yangtze River economic belt.

Generating 98.816 billion kwh of electricity in 2014, the Three Gorges Dam hit a new world record for the annual output of a single hydropower station. 

(Wang Tianhao contributed to the story)