Sichuan’s largest reservoir power station is full for the first time
On October 25, the Yalong River Basin Hydropower Development Company announced that the Yalong River Lianghekou Hydropower Station, the largest reservoir power station in Sichuan Province, has reached its normal water storage level of 2,865 meters for the first time. This milestone will significantly contribute to power supply during the upcoming winter and spring seasons, while also enhancing the overall benefits of hydropower generation and flood control across the Yalong River cascade of power stations.
Located in Sichuan, the Yalong River basin showcases significant advantages in multi-energy complementarity with its renewable resources, combining hydropower and wind while also benefiting from diurnal complementarity within wind and solar energy production. This positions it as an outstanding base for clean and renewable energy on a large scale.
With the Lianghekou Reservoir now full, it operates alongside the downstream Jinping I and Dushan Reservoirs, bringing the total reservoir capacity to 24.9 billion cubic meters, with a regulatory capacity of 14.8 billion cubic meters. This represents approximately 51% of the total regulatory capacity of large reservoirs in Sichuan. Collectively, the three major reservoirs, when at full capacity, can store around 30 billion kilowatt-hours of energy, roughly two-thirds of the total energy storage capacity at full level across Sichuan’s large reservoirs. This makes the Yalong River one of the best-performing large rivers in the country for regulatory capabilities, laying a solid foundation for complementary development and operation of hydropower and solar/wind energy resources in the Yalong River basin.
As a multi-year regulating reservoir within the Yalong River cascade, the full storage of Lianghekou Reservoir will maximize its role in regulating and compensating for water levels. This means that excess water generated during wet seasons can be stored for use during drier periods. Annually, this could increase the power generation of 17 hydropower plants located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yalong River, Jinsha River, and the Yangtze River by about 34.2 billion kilowatt-hours—three times the power generation capacity of the Lianghekou Hydropower Station itself.
Furthermore, with optimized scheduling for joint operations across the river basin’s cascade of large hydropower plants, the Yalong River basin can provide substantial flexible regulation capability for both wind and solar energy along its banks. This will utilize the exceptional regulatory performance of hydropower to smooth out fluctuations in renewable energy output and effectively improve the grid’s capacity to integrate these new energy sources, ensuring a stable and reliable power supply for the electrical system.
Currently, the planned installed capacity for the integrated hydropower and solar/wind energy base in the Yalong River basin stands at 78 million kilowatts, which, upon completion, will make it the largest green clean renewable energy base in the world. To date, close to 21 million kilowatts of green clean energy capacity have already been put into operation.