Located in Pu’er City, the project features nine 650MW generating units.
China Huaneng has developed the project, which is claimed to be the largest hydropower station along the Lancang River and in Yunnan Province.
The first of the project’s generating units entered operation in September 2012.
As of 26 June 2014, the plant had generated 32,104GWh of electricity, equivalent to reducing 18.77 million tons of CO2 a year.
The company developed a digital dam monitoring information management system and applied the clay core and gravel admixing process during the project construction process.
China Huaneng claims that the project’s vertical core-wall rockfill dam is the tallest in China and third in the world at over 261m high.
The Three Gorges project is currently claimed as China’s biggest hydropower plant with a 22.5GW generating capacity and a 181m dam.
China originally planned to increase its hydropower capacity by 70GW during the 2011 to 2015 period and bring the total capacity to around 420GW by 2020.
The country however did not meet its targets as several projects were approved at slow pace.
China’s total hydropower capacity was 249.6GW at the end of May 2014, an increase of 13.7% on the year and accounting to 20.1% of the entire energy generation.
Reuters reported that the Nuozhadu plant is a part of the west-east electricity transmission programme in China, which has been designed to deliver electricity to key energy markets from remote western regions.
Image: China’s total hydropower capacity was 249.6GW at the end of May 2014. Photo: Courtesy of Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
