China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG) has announced that the Three Gorges Project – the world’s largest hydropower project – connected all of its 34 power units to the grid on August 30, achieving full-load operation for the first time in 2021 with a total output of 22.5GW.
Operating at full-load capacity, the Three Gorges Project is able to generate 0.54 TWh electricity a day, which is enough to power 5.4 million households for one month on assumption that the monthly average electricity consumption of a family of three is 100 KWh, said Zou Yi, vice president of Three Gorges Project under China Yangtze Power Co., Ltd., CTG’s listed arm.
Due to sustained rainfall in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River recently, the inflow volume of the Three Gorges Reservoir exceeded 22,000 cubic meters per second and embraced three floods of over 40,000 cubic meters per second.
In addition to flood control, Three Gorges Reservoir regulated the discharge volume in lock step with the power units at full capacity, managing to control the water level at the reservoir to increase gradually. The facilities at the complex, including the Three Gorges Dam and the Three Gorges ship locks operated safely during the operation.
