Sichuan breaks 100-m-kw mark in hydropower installed capacity

CHENGDU -- With the final generating unit of the Yinjiang Hydropower Station in Southwest China's Sichuan province connected to the power grid Friday morning, the province's total installed hydropower capacity surpassed a record-breaking 100 million kilowatts, accounting for about one-fourth of the country's total.

As a key hub in China's west-to-east power transmission program, Sichuan supplies about one-third of its generated electricity annually to regions outside the province.

Since 1998, when outbound transmission began, Sichuan has delivered over 1.9 trillion kilowatt-hours of clean electricity to central and eastern China, among other regions -- enough to cover the total electricity consumption of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces combined for a year, according to State Grid Sichuan Electric Power Company.

The Yinjiang Hydropower Station is located in Sichuan's Panzhihua City, on the Jinsha River, with a total installed capacity of 390,000 kilowatts. Once fully operational, the station will be capable of delivering over 1.6 billion kilowatt-hours of clean energy annually, equivalent to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1.3 million tonnes, noted Yan Ruiping, chief engineer of the station's operator.

Known as the "province of a thousand rivers," Sichuan is rich in hydropower resources.