The primary unit of one of many world’s highest-elevation hydropower crops started working in China in April. China Power stated the Maerdang hydropower station (Determine 1), sited at greater than 16,000 ft above sea stage in northwest China’s Qinghai Province, got here on-line on April 1, with the preliminary unit’s 550 MW of era capability anticipated to supply 13.2 GWh of electrical energy every day. Gu Faming, deputy head of the mechanical and electrical heart of the Maerdang station, stated the plant when totally operational may present about 15 TWh of electrical energy yearly.
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1. China Power stated the Maerdang hydropower station, positioned greater than 16,000 ft above sea stage, is the corporate’s first built-in clear vitality facility, and contains solar energy and vitality storage. Courtesy: China Power |
The Maerdang station, designed to have 2,200 MW of era capability when full, is positioned on the higher reaches of the Yellow River. It’s the highest-altitude plant in that basin, which incorporates different main hydro tasks together with the 1,280-MW Longyangxia station, which has operated since 1992 with 4 320-MW models. One other massive undertaking within the area is Yellow River Yangqu, below development since 2021 with the primary unit anticipated to enter operation in July of this yr. The 1,200-MW Yangqu station is anticipated to be totally operational in 2025. It should characteristic three 400-MW Francis generators. Yangqu is positioned upstream of Longyangxia, and is certainly one of three new cascade hydro stations deliberate in that space. The opposite tasks are the Ciha and Bando hydropower crops.
China Power stated Maerdang would be the firm’s first built-in clear vitality facility involving hydropower, solar energy, and vitality storage. The corporate stated the undertaking features a 750-kV ultra-high-voltage substation, the very best of its type in China, that was put into operation in September 2023 to serve the hydropower station.
Li Jingchang, technical director at PowerChina Northwest Engineering Corp., designed the Maerdang station. Jingchang stated the ability marks a milestone amongst Chinese language hydropower tasks, as the primary unit got here on-line about 36 months after development started. China Power has centered on extra speedy development of renewable vitality tasks in recent times. The corporate stated it put in a document 320 GW of energy era capability in 2023, with renewable vitality accounting for greater than 35% of that complete. The Worldwide Power Company stated China had 759 GW of wind and solar energy era capability put in as of 2022, with a objective of getting 3.9 TW of renewable vitality on-line by 2030.
China Power stated the brand new substation has raised the voltage grade of the facility transmission community within the Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai from 330 kV to 750 kV. The corporate stated the ability is taken into account an “clever substation,” and is provided with a counter-unmanned plane system, which China Power stated is able to detecting potential threats from plane reminiscent of drones. The system has a protection mode that would intercept unidentified drones or different plane.
China is the world’s largest producer of hydroelectricity. The nation options lots of the largest working hydro crops, together with the 22,500-MW Three Gorges plant on the Yangtze River, the biggest energy station on the planet.
—Darrell Proctor is a senior affiliate editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).
