On July 17, the third million-kilowatt unit of Baihetan Hydropower Station passed the 72-hour trial operation and was officially put into operation for power generation. At present, the cumulative power generation of the first two units has exceeded 1 billion kWh.
The Baihetan Hydropower Station is a large hydroelectric dam on the Jinsha River, an upper stretch of the Yangtze River in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, in the southwest of China. The dam is a 277 m tall double-curvature arch dam with a crest elevation of 827 m, and a width of 72 m at the base and 13 m at the crest. It is considered the last large hydropower project in China to be completed since a series of projects starting with the Three Gorges Dam, the third largest dam in China and the fourth in the world, in terms of dam volume.
The facility will generate power by utilizing 16 turbines, each with a generating capacity of 1.0 GW, taking the generating capacity to 16,000 MW. In terms of generating capacity, it will be the second largest hydroelectric power plant in the world, after the Three Gorges Dam.
