The Pangduo Hydro Power Station (; also called the Pondo Hydro Power Station) is a reservoir and dam on the

Lhasa River The Lhasa River, also called Kyi Chu (, ), is a northern tributary of the Yarlung Tsangpo River in the south of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The Yarlung Tsangpo is the upper section of the Brahmaputra River. The Lhasa River is subject to ...

Lhünzhub County Lhünzhub County, also called Lhundrub or Linzhou County, is a county in Lhasa towards the north-east of the main center of Chengguan, Tibet, China. It covers an area of and as of 2000 had a population of 50,895 people, almost all classified a ...

to the east of

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level city, prefecture-level Lhasa (prefecture-level city), Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Regio ...

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a Provinces of China, province-level Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China in Southwest China. I ...

, China. The primary purposes are hydroelectric power generation and agricultural irrigation. Work started in 2008. The first turbine came into production in 2013 and the other three turbines in 2014. With annual generation capacity of 599 million kilowatt hours, it has been called the "Tibetan Three Gorges". Nevertheless, the comparison is hyperbole since the dam is only able to impound less than 1/30th that of Three Gorges.(31.9 vs 0.97 million acre-feet).

Description

The Pangduo Dam impounds the Lhasa River in Pondo Township of Lhünzhub County, about from Lhasa. It is at an elevation of above sea level, upstream from the 100MW Zhikong Dam at . The objectives included hydroelectric power generation, irrigation, flood prevention and water supply. Of these, power generation and irrigation are the main purposes. The dam is one of a series that China has built on the Brahmaputra and its tributaries, others being the

Yamdrok Hydropower Station The Yamdrok Hydropower Station (), also known as the Yamdrok Yumtso or Yamzhog Yumcog hydropower station, is a hydroelectric power station just north of Yamdrok Lake, about southwest of Qüxü. The power station is in the Lhoka (Shannan) Prefe ...

, Nyingtri-Payi and Drikong. The

rock-fill dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, tap water, human consumption, Industri ...

impounds of water. It is planned to irrigate of agricultural land. The power station has total installed capacity of 160 MW, with four generating units. The potential annual generating capacity is 599 GWh (million kilowatt hours).

Construction

The project involved a total investment of 4.569 billion yuan, or about 740 million US dollars, and has been called the "Tibetan Three Gorges". The dam and power station were built as part of the Western Development Strategy. Work started in 2008, and progressed on schedule. Damming of the river stream was completed in October 2011. The project included the world's deepest cut-off wall, at , with an axes length of . Construction of the wall was challenging, with glacial sediments underlying flood sediments. The construction team had to deal with the lack of oxygen at above sea level and the cold weather. The project was due to start operating its first generator in October 2013. The first generator set was supported by a computer monitoring system developed by the Beijing-based Institute of Water resources and Hydropower Research. The first generating unit started operation in December 2013, with annual generation capacity of 150 million kilowatt hours. The other three units were expected to come onstream in June 2014, bringing annual capacity to the total of 599 million kilowatt hours. Construction is expected to be completed in 2016.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * {{stack, {{Portal, China, Asia, Water, Renewable energy Reservoirs and dams in Tibet Dams in the Brahmaputra River Basin Buildings and structures in Lhasa Lhünzhub County Dams in China Hydroelectric power stations in Tibet Dams completed in 2013 2013 establishments in China Rock-filled dams Energy infrastructure completed in 2013