The Three Gorges Power Plant, the country's largest hydropower
project, has generated more than 150 billion kilowatt-hours of
electricity since it became operational in 2003, the operating
company announced on Sunday.
The electricity generated by the project has fueled 15 provinces
in central, eastern and southern China, easing a severe power
shortage in their industrial regions, said a statement from the
China Three Gorges Project Corporation.
The 22.5-billion-US-dollar project was launched in 1993 in the
midsection of the Yangtze River, China's longest. Its 26
turbo-generators are designed to eventually produce 84.7 billion
kwhs of electricity a year after its scheduled completion in
2008.
The electricity it produces will be enough to light up Shanghai
on a peak day with power to spare, while the 2.3-kilometer-long dam
will help to controls annual floods that regularly devastate the
country's densely populated farming heartland.
Fourteen of the designed 26 turbines are operating at full
capacity and another four, each with an installed capacity of
700,000 kw, will go into operation this year, said the
statement.
An earlier report said the Three Gorges and the downstream
Gezhouba power plant would generate 78.6 billion kwhs of
electricity this year, up 23 percent over the previous year.
The rising water level in the Three Gorges Reservoir and new
generators that were to come into operation this year would help
meet the target, said Cao Guangjing, deputy general manager of the
corporation, which manages the two power plants.
The water level in the Three Gorges Reservoir rose to the
156-meter mark on Oct. 27 last year. At full capacity, the level
will rise to 175 meters in 2008.
(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2007)