The Gezhouba Water Control Project

Power system monitoring system

The Gezhouba Water Control Project is located at the terminal of the Yangtze Gorges in Yichang, Hubei Province, China. It is 2.3 km from the downstream of Nanjinguan, the exit of Yangtse Gorges. The Gezhouba Dam is the first large-scale hydropower station on the Yangtze River and the largest run-of-river hydropower station with low-water-head mass flow in the world. The construction begun in May 1971, suspended from December 1972 to October 1974, and was all completed in December 1988. The dam is a gate dam, with a highest dam height of 47 meters, and a total storage capacity of 1.58 billion cubic meters. It has a total installed capacity of 2.715MV and an annual generating capacity of 14 billion kilowatt-hours, with 2 sets of 0.17 MV units and 5 sets of 0.125 MV units installed at Erjiang Hydropower Station and 14 sets of 0.125 MV units installed at Dajiang Hydropower Station. The first 0.17 MV units have come into service on July 30th, 1981.

The Gezhouba Water Control Project can both generate power and dredge waterways. With installed capacity of 2.715 million kilowatts, it can provide a guaranteed output of 0.768 MV and an annual capacity of 15.7 billion kilowatt-hour on its own (the guaranteed output and annual capacity can be improved to 1.58 – 1.94 million kilowatt-hours and 1.61 billion kilowatt-hours respectively when the Yangtze Gorges Project is completed). The station is incorporated into the central China grid through 500 kV and 220 kV transmission lines and able to supply Shanghai which is 1,000 kilometers away with 1.2 MV power through 500 kV DC transmission line.

The backflow zone of the reservoir area is 110 – 180 kilometers long, which has improved the shipping conditions of the Yangtze River. The total storage of the reservoir is 1.58 billion cubic meters. Limited by the shipping conditions, it did not contribute to flood regulation in 2013. After the completion of Yangtze Gorges Project, with a counter-regulation capacity of 85 million cubic meters, it can counter-regulate the flow resulted from uneven flood regulation.

With mature instruments and apparatus technologies, information technologies, and communication network technologies, the Sfere3000 power system monitoring system developed by Jiangsu Sfere Electrical Co., Ltd. independently has realized the functions of data collection, status monitoring, malfunction alarm, data storage, and remote control to provide integrated power monitoring solution for Gezhouba Water Control Project.