Project engineers are under orders to restore any shortfalls.
Posted on 06/11/2007 12:43:18 AM PDT by HAL9000
THREE GORGES CONSTRUCTION SITE, Hubei Province, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Electricity generation now spans the two banks of China's largest hydropower project, the Three Gorges Project, with the first turbine generator on the right bank of the river going into operation on Monday after a 72-hour trial.The 700,000-kilowatt No. 22 turbine began producing electricity at 9:12 a.m. The electricity is transmitted through the state power grid to energy-strained eastern cities such as Shanghai.
An electronic monitoring screen showed the turbine was operating normally with output of 650,000 kwh.
The 14 turbines on the left bank of the Gorges began operation in September 2005. The very first turbine started producing electricity almost four years ago, in July 2003.
On Monday, the water level was around 145 meters in the Three Gorges reservoir and downstream it was about 65 meters.
The No. 22 turbine is the first of the 12 turbines on the right bank of the gigantic Three Gorges project to be put into use.
The No. 22 turbine will generate revenue of 3.9 million yuan (510,000 U.S. dollars) each day if it maintains output of 650,000 kwh, according to experts.
Another turbine, numbered 26, on the right bank, is undergoing a final pre-operation checkup.
The installation of the 12 turbines on the right bank -- eight domestically made ones and four imported turbines -- began last June and is expected to be completed next year.
A total of four turbines on the right bank are expected to start operation this year. All 12 turbines will be producing electricity at the end of 2008.
The hydroelectric project plans to produce 370 billion kwh of electricity in the 2006-2010 period, according to Cao Guangjing, deputy general manager of China Three Gorges Corporation. The electricity will be transmitted to power grids in central, eastern and southern China.
The 22.5-billion-U.S.-dollar project was launched in 1993. Its 26 turbo-generators are designed to produce 85 billion kwh of electricity a year after completion in 2008.
The dam, 2,309 meters long and 185 meters high, was completed in May last year and the water level in the reservoir was raised to 156 meters from 135 meters in October. The dam had been designed to help minimize damage caused by floods that might occur only once every 1,000 years.
The project has produced 165 billion kwh of electricity since 2003.
Work has also begun on the installation of six more underground turbines, which are expected to start operation in 2010.
So far the project has necessitated the resettlement of 1.2 million people.
Great for China, but what about the fish ladders?
/sarc
1 up for mankind and take that environnazis
But what is the carbon footprint of this project? /sarc
One helluva project. Big stuff is great, even if the ChiComs are the ones that do it.
“Its 26 turbo-generators are designed to produce 85 billion kwh of electricity a year”
With no fule cost.
(Title = Link ↑)
The amount of electrical energy that can be generated from a water source depends primarily on two things: the distance the water has to fall, and how much water is flowing. Hydroelectric power stations are therefore situated where they can take advantage of the greatest fall of a large quantity of water- at the bottom of a deep and steep sided valley or gorge, or near the base of a dam (see Figure 1).
Figure 1 Diagram of hydroelectric scheme
(Copyright Western Power Corporation )
Water is collected and stored in the dam above the station for use when it is required. Some dams create big reservoirs to store water by raising the levels of rivers to increase their capacity. Other dams simply arrest the flow of rivers and divert the water down to the power station through pipelines. While a water turbine is much more sophisticated than the old water wheels, it is similar in operation (see Figure 2). In both cases, blades are attached to a shaft and when flowing water presses against the blades, the shaft rotates. The effect is the same as wind pressing against the blades of a windmill. After the water has given up its energy to the turbine, it is discharged through drainage pipes or channels called the "tailrace" of the power station for irrigation or water supply purposes or, in some parts of the world, even into the ocean.
Figure 2 Cut-away drawing of a water turbine generator
(Image courtesy of the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme)
In a conventional coal-fired (thermal) power station each "generating unit" consists of a boiler, a steam turbine, and the generator itself. A hydroelectric generating unit is simpler and consists of a water turbine to convert the energy of flowing water into mechanical energy, and an electric generator to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. The amount of energy available from water depends on both the quantity of water available and its pressure at the turbine. The pressure is referred to, as the head, and is measured as the height that the surface of the water in the dam/river is above the turbine down near the base at the outlet.
The greater the height (or head) of the water above the turbine, the more energy each cubic metre of water can impart to spin a turbine (which in turn drives a generator). The greater the quantity of water, the greater the number and size of turbines that may be spun, and the greater the power output of the generators.
“Welcome everyone,im your dam tour guide Arnie. Im about to take you through at fully functional power plant.So please no one wonder off the dam tour, and feel free to take all the dam pictures you want..now..are there any dam questions??”
“yea! where can i get some dam bait?”
Should read "650,000 kw" or "650,000 kwh per hour." Or maybe "650,000 kwe."
Just guessing; the eight domestic turbines are reverse engineered from the four purchased ones.
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