Pumped hydro storage is the super power bank and stabilizing regulator of new power systems. On September 25, 2023, the Ruoqiang Pumped Storage Power Station and the first phase of the new energy project, Xinjiang’s largest and southern Xinjiang’s first pumped storage power station project, started construction in Ruoqiang County, Xinjiang. The project was constructed by CNNC Xinhua Hydropower Co., Ltd. .

Ruoqiang pumped storage power station has a total installed capacity of 2.1 million kilowatts, a total planned investment of 16.525 billion yuan, and a designed annual power generation capacity of 2.625 billion kilowatt hours. The project mainly consists of buildings such as upper reservoir, lower reservoir, water delivery system and underground power plant system. The total construction period of the project is 81 months, and the power generation period of the first unit is 66 months. It is planned that the first unit will generate power in September 2029. It will be fully put into production in December 2030.

After the project is completed, it will mainly serve the power grid and new energy consumption in southern Xinjiang, and undertake tasks such as peak shaving, valley filling, energy storage, frequency modulation, phase modulation, and emergency backup of the power system. It can save about 1.345 million tons of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 4.046 million tons every year.

This project is one of Xinhua Power Generation’s pumped-storage projects with the shortest preliminary work time and the fastest advancement. Zhang Yan, Secretary of the Xinhua Hydropower Party Committee and Chairman of China National Nuclear Corporation, introduced that since 2022, the company has seized new opportunities in the construction of pumped hydropower and clean energy bases in Xinjiang, creating a number of "largest" and "first" records in the autonomous region and even the country. As of now, the controllable installed capacity in Xinjiang exceeds 10 million kilowatts, with a cumulative investment of more than 50 billion yuan, and a number of new energy projects are about to start construction. Editor/Zhao E