The Yangfanggou Hydropower Station on the Yalong River, the country’s first 1 million-kilowatt-level EPC hydropower project, started operation on June 30, 2021 to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. The Yangfanggou station, also a major clean energy project of the country, marks a milestone for development of the Yalong River Hydropower Development Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the State Development and Investment Group Ltd (SDIC).

Located at the middle reaches of the Yalong River in Muli county, Liangshan prefecture of Southwest China’s Sichuan province, the Yangfanggou Hydropower Station has a 155-metre-high dam, and a total installed capacity of 1.5 million kilowatts with an average annual electricity generation of 6.856 billion kilowatt-hours. The project has a total investment of 20 billion yuan. With its construction started on July 13, 2015, the gigantic hydropower station began to store water on December 30, 2020 and is scheduled to be completed in 2023.

The Yangfanggou Hydropower Station is a major clean energy project of the country, a key electricity supply project of the country and Sichuan province as well, and the first to start generating hydropower among all hydropower projects in the middle reaches of the Yalong River. Operation of the Yangfanggou Hydropower Station is of significant meaning for transformation and upgrade of the hydropower market, optimizing structure of Sichuan power grid, supporting clean and low-carbon growth, and promoting the local social and economic development as well as revitalizing the Liangshan region which has got rid of poverty.

Continuous development of hydropower projects in the middle reaches of the Yalong River helps accelerate construction of green and renewable energy base in the region.

The Yalong River, which originates from the south foot of the Bayan Har Mountain on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, runs through Ganzi prefecture, LIanshan prefecture and Panzhihua city. The 1,571-kilometre-long river has a natural fall of 3,830 metres, ranking the third among the country’s total 13 planned major hydropower bases.

The Yalong River Hydropower Station Co Ltd is ized by the country to take charge of construction and management of the Yalong River cascade hydropower stations. Through comprehensive analysis and scientific research, the Yalong River Hydropower Development Co Ltd has worked out a four-stage development strategy, planning to develop 22 cascade hydropower stations with a total installed power generating capacity of 30 million kilowatts. The Yangfanggou Hydropower Station is the first to start generating electricity, and the Lianghekou Hydropower Station, nicknamed Dragon-Head of all the reservoirs of the river, is expected to be operational by the end of this year. With the first turbine of the Yangfanggou station starting to spin, the combined capacity of operational hydropwer turbines of the Yalong River Hydropower has reached 15.075 million kilowatts, more than half of the total planned installation capacity of the Yalong River basin.

To contribute to the country’s realization of emission peak and carbon neutralization goal, the Yalong River Hydropower Development Co Ltd, based on its four-stage development strategy, has also drafted a multi-facet development plan of hydropower, wind power and solar power which shall supplement each other. With a planned total installation capacity of 80 million kilowatts, this plan will make the Yalong River basin the world’s largest green and clean energy base.

At present, the Yalong River basin green and clean energy base is included in the country’s 14^th Five-Year Plan and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035, making it one of the country’s nine major clean energy bases. Construction of the Yalong River basin clean energy base will help it make great contributions to the country’s green and low-carbon growth.

Cascade power stations will generate compensation benefits and optimize sources of power grid.

When the Yangfanggou Hydropower Station operates alone, it enjoys only daily adjustable benefit; while the two stations of the Yangfanggou and Lianghekou operate simultaneously, they have yearly adjustable benefits, supplementing each other in rainy and dry seasons. With this mechanism, the Yangfanggou Hydropwer Station will be able to generate 3.09 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity even in normal to low water seasons, accounting for 45 percent of its annual average electricity generation and substantially increasing the efficiency of water usage.

Hydropower accounts a major share of the Sichuan power grid and power supply is heavily affected by rainy and dry seasons each year, causing short supply of power in dry seasons. However, the Yangfanggou Hydropower Station is able to provide comparatively steady supply of power and this will help increase the power supply even in dry seasons, thus helping optimizing power source structures. In the meantime, it will help improve the performance of the power grid.

Once the four turbines are all put into operation, the Yangfanggou Hydropower Station will be able to generate annually the amount of clean power equivalent to the total electricity consumption of the Tibet autonomous region in the year 2018, or enough to power a total of 5.44 million family electric vehicles each of which runs 10,000 kilometres. Green power generated by the project is equal to reducing the use of 2.3 million tons of standard coal, and cuts down sulfur dioxide emissions by about 34,000 tons, making important contributions to green and low-carbon development.

Through the Yazhong ±800 KV ultra-high voltage direct current transmission project, electricity generated by the cascade hydropower stations in the middle reaches of the Yalong River, including the Yangfanggou Hydropower Station, will also be able to transmit electricity to the Central China region and the Yangtze River Economic Belt after satisfying the needs of the Sichuan power grid. Hydropower, wind power and solar power of the Yalong River basin will supplement each other and will be able to provide continuous power supply to the provinces and cities along the Yangtze River. This will be of great significance in building a secured and highly efficient green and low-carbon energy system, realizing the goal of energy saving and emission reduction, promoting the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, coordinated development of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, and the development of west regions in the new era.

Among all the 1 million kilowatt-level hydropower projects, the Yalong River Hydropower Station is the first to adopt the EPC (Engineering,Procurement,Construction) model, a bold experiment, which is praised by the industry insiders as “the Second Lubuge Impact”.

In the early stages of hydropower construction and management in the country, a commonly-used management model is the so-called “self-run model”, meaning that design and construction are all done by design institutes and construction bureaus under a department in charge and then, when completed, the project is transferred to a power plant. In the 1980s, construction of the Lubuge Hydropower Station marked the start of public bidding and construction of the country’s hydropower projects entered the period of DBB (Design, Bid, Build) management model. The Ertan Hydropower Station on the Yalong River is the representative DBB project.

In recent years, due to the deepening of power system reform and increase of hydropower development cost, the Yalong River Hydropower Development Co Ltd adopts the EPC model in the construction of the Yangfanggou Hydropower Station so as to meet the challenges from the market. EPC model integrates design, science and research, and construction units, maximizes the comprehensive utilization of resources, and tap the great potentials of all involved so as to improve project efficiency and benefits.

Traditionally, separating design from construction prolongs construction terms while the adoption of EPC model indicates that the general contractor is responsible for all. In this process, designers and construction people live and work together, combine technology advantages of a design unit with in-field experience of a construction company so that they can make use of resources more efficiently, improve the efficiency of communication, reduce wastes of resources and time, and shoulder clearly-cut responsibilities. For example, construction of an underground workshop traditionally needs 30 months for a similar scale hydropower station. But under the new model, it only used 26 months to do so. Thanks to the adoption of the EPC model, the Yangfanggou Hydropower Station has reported “zero accident” in construction safety and project quality since its construction, and the project started to store water one year earlier and to generate electricity six months earlier than contract terms while with investment under control.

The Yangfanggou Hydropower Station EPC model has also created a few “firsts” in the industry of the country: the first to have developed a smart quality management system for smart construction of a dam; the first to implement overall and full-process supervision for construction of large-type hydropower projects; and the first to develop a comprehensive, highly efficient and reliable supervision system and procedure for general contract of large-type hydropower projects.

Zhang Ye, president of China Society for Hydropower Engineering, said: “The Yangfanggou Hydropower Station on the Yalong River takes the lead in experiment and practice of EPC management model for large-type hydropower projects, provides a development guidance for transformation and upgrade of hydropower market in the new normal, and is of demonstration meaning for future hydropower project construction in the country.”

Build the first comprehensive smart construction platform for the domestic hydropower industry and realize digital management for the entire process of hydropower station construction.

Smart construction is realized in the entire process of design and construction of the Yangfanggou Hydropower Station. Based on the experiences gained from cascade hydropower station development and construction, the research and use of the key technologies of the Yalog River Hydropower smart construction has formed the BIM (Building, Information, Model) smart construction platform of the Yangfanggou Hydropower. While constructing the physical Yangfanggou Hydropwe Station, the Yalong River Hydropower Development Co Ltd has also built a virtual “Digital Power Station” through its big data.

Zhong Denghua, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that the research and application of the key technologies of the Yangfanggou hydropower smart construction is the first unified smart construction platform that covers all areas and entire process in the country’s hydropower industry. It takes the lead of the industry and can be used as an industry standard model for wide use.

The Yangfanggou Hydropower Station EPC Digital Technology Comprehensve Application has won an EIM special award by the China Electric Power Planning and Engineering Association. The Yangfanggou Hydropower Station Smart Management System of Smart Dam Construction and Quality Control has won the QIC-V prize, the highest prize, of the Fourth National Quality Innovation Competition. Large-Type Hydropower Project Management Research and Application based on General Contract Model has won the first prize of 2020 electric innovation by the China Electric Power Construction Association. Up to date, the Yangfanggou Hydropower Station has won, for its innovations, 12 province- and ministry-level awards, 28 utility model patents and 3 invention patents.

The Yangfanggou hydropower station is located at the economically-underdeveloped areas of Muli Tibetan autonomous county of Liangshan prefecture and Jiulong county, Ganzi prefecture in Sichuan province. Construction of the hydropower project is bound to give a massive push to the development of the local economy and the further advancement of the local society, substantially increase the shares of the secondary and the tertiary industries in the local GDP, and make it a pillar of the local industries, which will greatly benefit the local economy. In the past five years, the Yangfanggou hydropower project has stimulated investment totaling over 7.5 billion yuan and procurement from the locals surpassed 600 million yuan.

Construction of the Yangfanggou Hydropower Station has also greatly improved the local transport conditions. Before the project, the locals had to rely on simple forest farm roads and dangerous roads built along the high cliffs of the Yalong River. With construction of the Yangfanggou project, a 91.3-kilometre long grade 3 road has been built, connecting the locals to the roads that lead to Xichang, an important city in the region. The newly-built road brings convenience for the locals and plays an important role for them to get rid of poverty from selling their local produce to other places. Wu Song, head of Muli county, said：“It is impossible for Maidilong township to have such a convenient road without construction of the Yangfanggou Hydropower Station. Now, people from the several townships along the road can sell their tricholoma matsutake mushrooms to the outside markets. The mushrooms, worth 40 to 50 million yuan a year, plays a very important role in helping us get rid of poverty and promote high quality development of the county’s economy. ”

Qi Ningchun, chairman of the Yalong River Hydropower Development Co Ltd, said that during construction of the Yangfanggou Hydropower Station, his company sticks to the principle that construction of a hydropower station should help promote the development of the local economy, improve the local environment and benefit the local people. And, the company has achieved the goal in the process of building a first-class project.

The inclusion of the Yalong River basin clean energy base into the country’s 14^th Five-Year Plan means that the Yalong River Hydropower Development Co Ltd shoulders even greater responsibility. Chairman Qi Ningchun said that development of new energy represented by wind power and hydropower needs to speed up and will have an even greater platform for further development of clean energy in the Yalong River basin. Based on its experience of “one entity develops one river”, the Yalong River Hydropower Development Co Ltd will promote intensive development of wind power, solar energy and hydropower in the Yalong River basin and build a demonstration base of clean and renewable energy with hydropwer, wind power and solar power supplementary to each other. This will help build a clean, low-carbon, secured and highly efficient energy system to provide strong guarantee to the country’s goal of “carbon neutrality and emission peak”. At the same time, the Yalong River Hydropower Development Co Ltd will continue to experiment on building a new mechanism of integrating clean energy development and environment protection so as to aid the local economy to transforming to an overall green one and promoting high quality development of the economy in the Yangtze River economic belt. The Yalong River Hydropower Development Co Ltd will also be a role model as a central enterprise in intensifying its efforts of helping the local society get rid of poverty and revitalizing the local economy to its full scale.

                                                                 A bird’s eye view of the Yalong River Yangfanggou Hydropower Station.

                                                                                        Development Plan of the Yalong River Cascade Hydropower Projects.

                                              No. 1 Turbine of Yalong River Yangfanggou Hydropower Station.