The Jinping-I Dam () also known as the Jinping-I Hydropower Station or Jinping 1st Cascade, is a tall

arch dam An arch dam is a concrete dam that is curved upstream in plan. The arch dam is designed so that the force of the water against it, known as hydrostatic pressure, presses against the arch, causing the arch to straighten slightly and strengthe ...

on the Jinping Bend of the

Yalong River The Yalong River ( zh, 雅砻江, p ''Yǎlóngjiāng'', w ''Ya-lung Chiang'', IPA ), or Nyag Chu (Tibetan: , z ''Nyag Qu''), is a major tributary river of the Yangtze River in Southwest China. With a length of , the Y ...

(Yalong Jiang) in Liangshan,

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

, China. Construction on the project began in 2005 and was completed in 2014. Its power station has a 3,600 MW capacity to produce between 16 and 18 TW·h (billion kW·h) annually. Supplying the

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many ...

is a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

created by the 305-meter-tall

, the tallest in the world. The project's objective is to supply energy for expanding industrialization and

urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly t ...

, improve

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

protection, and prevent

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is dis ...

History

Harnessing hydropower on the Jinping bend of the Yalong River has been in planning for decades. The length of bend around the

Jinping Mountains The Jinping Mountains or Jinping Shan () are a short north-south mountain range in southwestern Sichuan Province, China. The Jinping are located within Yanyuan and Mianning Counties, both in Liangshan Prefecture. This mountain range is notable ...

is 150 km but the downstream (northbound) part of the river on the opposite side is only separated by 16 km. Between that distance, there is an elevation drop of 310 m, creating an excellent situation for

hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

production. Two projects were planned for the bend, the Jinping I and Jinping II with a combined capacity of 8,400 MW. Planning for the projects began in the 1960s under the former Sichuan and Shanghai design institutes along with the Ministry of Water Resources and Electric Power. They produced the "Reinvestigation Report on The Yalong River bend (Jinping)". In July 1965, the Jinping Hydropower Engineering Headquarters was set up and designs for the Jinping 1 and Jinping 2 would progress with the East China Investigation and Design Institute. Construction began on 12 November 2005. The dam began to impound its reservoir on 8 October 2012. First power was generated in 2013 with the remainder of the work to be completed by 2015. The rapid impounding has been linked to

reservoir-induced seismicity Induced seismicity is typically minor earthquakes and tremors that are caused by human activity that alters the stresses and strains on Earth's crust. Most induced seismicity is of a low magnitude. A few sites regularly have larger quakes, such ...

by a Chinese geologist. Out of hundreds of small earthquakes during impoundment, three between 3.9''M_W'' and 4.58''M_W'' were recorded on 22 November 2013 on a nearby fault line. The dam began to impound its reservoir on 8 October 2012 and the first two of six 600 MW generators became operational on 30 August 2013. The sixth and final generator was commissioned on 15 July 2014. The final generator for Jinping-II downstream was commissioned in November 2014.

Geography

The Jinping-I Dam is on the border of the Yanyuan and Muli counties in the

Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture Liangshan (; Yi: ''Niep Sha'', pronounced ), officially the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, is an autonomous prefecture occupying much of the southern extremity of Sichuan province, People's Republic of China; its seat is Xichang. Liangshan ...

of the

Sichuan province Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

. The

, which the dam controls, is the largest tributary of the Jinsha. For the project, approximately 7,500 inhabitants were expected to be relocated.

Design

The 305m tall and 568m long arch dam supplies the power station with water from a 7.7 billion m³ reservoir, of which 4.9 billion m³ is active or usable storage. The dam itself has a structural volume of 7.4 million m³. To control flooding, the dam is equipped with a controlled

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure th ...

on its crest with four gates and the capability to discharge up to . Five bottom outlets on the dam's orifice capable of discharging and a tunnel with a discharge capacity of with augment flood control as well. The

will contain six 600 MW Francis turbines. Water discharged from the power station is then diverted downstream by the Jinping 2 Dam to the

Jinping 2 Hydropower Station The Jinping-II Dam (), also known as the Jinping-II Hydropower Station, is a gravity dam on the Jinping Bend of the Yalong River (Yalong Jiang) in Sichuan, China. Construction on the project began in 2007 and it was complete in 2014. Its hydroele ...

References

{{Authority control Hydroelectric power stations in Sichuan Dams completed in 2013 Dams on the Yalong River Arch dams Dams in China Buildings and structures in Sichuan 2014 establishments in China Energy infrastructure completed in 2014

History

Geography

Design

See also

References