The Three Gorges Hydropower Plant has generated 10 billion
kilowatt hours of electricity in the first four months this
year.
Li Yong'an, general manager of China Three Gorges Project
Corporation, said last Friday the project had generated 58 billion
kwh since July 10, 2003, when the first generator started to
produce electricity.
Twelve generators with an installed generating capacity of 9.8
million kw have been operating at the plant, which is being built
on the middle section of the Yangtze.
The Three Gorges Project, with an estimated cost of 180 billion
yuan (approximately US$21.7 billion), will have 26 generators with
a combined generating capacity of 18.2 million kw and be able to
generate 84.7 billion kwh of hydro-electric power annually when it
is completed in 2009.
The project will also restart a new underground power workshop
with a planed installed capability of 4.2 kw containing six
generating units. The workshop's construction was postponed earlier
this year out of environmental concern.
Launched in 1993, the Three Gorges Project is designed to draw
power from the Yangtze, China's longest river. The massive project
was planned in three stages. Preparations and construction in the
first phase were carried out between 1993 and 1997.
So far, an investment of 113.1 billion yuan (US$13.6 billion)
has been spent on the project and the planed investment scale can
be under control amid escalating prices of building materials,
according to the general manager.
(Xinhua News Agency May 4, 2005)