On 6 June, the supporting 500 kV grid project for the world’s highest dam-based pumped storage power station, State Grid Jiangsu Jurong power plant, was successfully completed and put into operation.
The facility is located in Jiangsu, the centre of power consumption in the Yangtze River Delta region. During low power demand periods, water is pumped from the lower reservoir to the upper reservoir. During peak power demand, the potential energy in the reservoir is converted into electrical energy and fed to the grid, playing a crucial role in balancing grid loads.
The newly constructed grid project involves 21 km of transmission lines and 53 iron towers. The first unit of the power station is scheduled to be connected to the State Grid through this line in August. More than half the transmission lines for the supporting grid project were erected on mountains in Nanjing and Zhenjiang. To protect the mountain vegetation, State Grid utilised intelligent construction equipment such as visual tensioning devices and digital wire rope recycling units, ensuring minimal damage to the mountain’s flora during the construction process.
Jiangsu Jurong, which began construction in March 2017, has a total installed capacity of 1.35 GW from a total investment of over 9.6 billion yuan (1.24 bn USD). “The pumped storage power station is connected to the 500 kV Shangdang Substation. Once all six units are operational by the end of 2025, it will annually pump 1.8 billion kWh of water and generate 1.35 billion kWh of electricity, meeting the annual electricity needs of approximately 360 000 households and reducing carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide emissions by approximately 357 000 tons annually,” said Bao Lei, director of the substation operation and inspection centre of State Grid Zhenjiang Power Supply Co.
