Huaneng Nuozhadu Hydropower Station Approved by the National Development and Reform Commission

On March19, Huaneng Nuozhadu Hydropower Station, a national key project and also the largest hydropower station in Yunnan province, was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission. With total planned installed capacity of 5,850MW and total investment of RMB 45 billion, the Nuozhadu Hydropower Station is the project with largest engineering scale and storage capacity in the Lancang River Basin, the largest rock-fill dam power station in Asia, and the third highest core wall rock-fill dam power station in the world.

Nuozhadu Hydropower Station is a key project in Power Transmission from West China to the East China, and from Yunnan province to Neighboring Regions, and is an important project for Yunnan province in the construction of a national hydropower base. The power station is located in Pu’er city in the lower reaches of Lancang River. The normal reservoir storage level of Nuozhadu Hydropower Station is 812m, the maximum height of the core wall rock-fill dam is 261.5m, the total storage capacity of the reservoir is 22.741 billion m3, and the regulating storage capacity of the reservoir is 11.335 billion m3. The power station has nine generating units (9×650MW), guaranteed output of 2400MW, and average annual electricity generation of 23912GWh.

In addition to enormous economic benefits, the power station also gives full expression to energy conservation and emissions reduction. When all generating units are put into operation, the project can save over 9.56 million tons of standard coal and reduce CO2 emissions by 18.77 million tons every year, compared with coal-fired power projects, and will also greatly reduce discharge of wastewater, waste residue and floating dusts, etc.

Nuozhadu Hydropower Station is a world-class huge project. It faces high technical indexes and complicated geological conditions. Many technical indexes including dam, spillway and underground powerhouse, etc. are among the top in the world. The height of the gravel clay core rock-fill dam is No.1 in Asia and No.3 in the world. The underground powerhouse is one of the largest one of the kind in China. The open spillway has the largest scale in Asia, and has the largest flood discharge power and flow velocity in the world.