The Jinchuan Hydropower Station in the Dadu River basin officially began grid-connected power generation on May 12. With a total installed capacity of 860,000 kilowatts, the station is an important part of the Dadu River hydropower base, one of the country’s 13 major hydropower bases under national planning. The commissioning of the project has further strengthened the supply capacity of clean energy in southwest China.
Full view of Jinchuan Hydropower Station
The Jinchuan Hydropower Station dam stands 112 meters high, with a crest width of 10 meters and a base width of 400 meters. The reservoir is designed to store up to 500 million tons of water. The underground powerhouse is equipped with four generating units and is expected to produce approximately 3.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. In terms of key environmental indicators, the station’s power supply capacity is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 2.6 million tons each year.
Recently, the Dadu River basin has entered a concentrated period of hydropower project commissioning. Four hydropower stations, including Jinchuan, Zhentouba II, Shaping I and Chuosijia, have successively begun operation, adding nearly 2 million kilowatts of installed capacity. Under the overall basin development plan, a total of 28 cascade hydropower stations are planned along the main stream of the Dadu River, with total hydropower development capacity exceeding 27 million kilowatts. To date, more than 20 million kilowatts of hydropower capacity in the basin has already been put into operation, while the Youlaoyingyan II Hydropower Station has also successfully achieved river closure.
At present, southwest China, including Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Chongqing, serves as the country’s core region for hydropower development. Large-scale construction of hydropower projects continues across the four major river basins of the Jinsha River, Yalong River, Lancang River and Dadu River. According to statistics from the China Electricity Council, the installed hydropower capacity and power generation of Sichuan and Yunnan together now account for roughly half of the national total, playing a crucial role in the West-to-East Power Transmission program and the stability of the national power supply system.
