World's highest pumped storage power station begins construction

(ECNS) -- As a project of the Yalong wind and solar power base, the world's highest-altitude pumped--storage power station on Yalong River, started construction in Daofu County, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze, Sichuan Province, the Science and Technology Daily has reported.

Located at an altitude of 4,300 meters, the power station has a total designed installed capacity of 2.1 million kilowatts, with an annual generation of over 2.994 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.

As the largest pumped storage power station in Sichuan, it is equipped with six reversible units, each with a capacity of 350,000 kilowatts. The station consists of an upper reservoir, lower reservoir, water conveyance system, underground powerhouse system, and surface switchyard.

Pumped-storage power stations use off-peak electricity to pump water to higher locations, where it is stored and then released to generate electricity when the power supply is strained. They can complement wind and solar power generation, which brings bigger fluctuations to the grid, said Zhang Peng, deputy general manager of the Yalong River Hydropower Development Company.

The station is expected to store 12.6 million kilowatt-hours of electricity daily, which can meet daily power consumption of 2 million households in Sichuan.

The Yalong wind and solar power base, a large-scale clean energy demonstration base in China, has put into operation nearly 21 million kilowatts of hydropower and new energy so far and completed construction of 78 million kilowatts of installed capacity for 2035, making it the world's largest base of green and renewable energy.