The water level in the Three Gorges reservoir reached the 156-meter mark at
9:50 a.m. on Friday, a rise of 20 meters since September 20, when this phase of
the water storage plan went into operation.
"The Three Gorges project has achieved the second phase of the water storage
plan," announced Li Yong'an, general manager of China Yangtze River Three Gorges
Project Development Corporation (CTGC).
At 156 meters, the Three Gorges Project is now fully functional in terms of
flood-control, power generation and navigation control, said Li.
Figures from the CTGC Cascaded Dispatch Center suggest that Yangtze River
water is entering the reservoir at 15,000 cubic meters per second. All 14 of the
700,000-kw generator units powered by water discharge are operating at full
capacity.
The reservoir has stored some 10.5 billion cubic meters of water. Data
retrieved from 7,000 monitoring devices planted in the Three Gorges Dam indicate
the gigantic concrete dam is stable under the current water pressure.
Launched in 1993, construction of the gigantic concrete structure of the
Three Gorges dam was completed and began to hold water in May this year. Prior
to that, the reservoir's temporary cofferdams held water at a depth of around
135 to 139 meters.
The water level in the reservoir will eventually reach 175 meters in 2009,
when the Three Gorges project is finally completed.
"The water storage plan was fulfilled a year earlier than previously planned,
which means the project generates 7.85 billion kw/hour more electricity to 15
provinces and municipalities along the river than planned," said the manager.
The generator units generated power at a rate of 550,000 kw per hour since
they were commissioned in July 2003. With the generators running at full
capacity, each generator's power generation is enough for a city with a
population of one million.
The Three Gorges Hydropower Plant will generate 53.1 billion kw/hour of
electricity this year.
By lifting the water level to 156 meters, a 570 km-long navigation route to
the upper-stream of the Three Gorges has been optimized, allowing ships with a
loading capacity of over 10,000 tons to travel from the river mouth in Shanghai
on China's eastern coast to landlocked Chongqing Municipality in west China.
Meanwhile, the reservoir's 11 billion cubic meters of flood-control capacity
will protect people living on the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River
from major flood disasters previously experienced once every 100
years.
