With a dull yet powerful roar, good news came from the construction site of the Zaozhuang Shanting Pumped Storage Power Station in Shanting District, Zaozhuang City, Shandong Province, which was built by the Hefei Branch of China Aneng First Engineering Bureau. Recently, the excavation of the access tunnel, a key control project of the power station, achieved a successful first explosion, officially kicking off the construction of the tunnel. This critical explosion not only blasted open the hard rock layers, but also sounded the starting gun for the full speed advancement of the tunnel construction project.

The total installed capacity of the power station is as high as 1180 megawatts, which belongs to the second-class large (2) type project. It is planned to install four advanced units with a single capacity of 295 megawatts. The entire project has a huge scale and extremely high standards, making it a benchmark project for regional energy infrastructure construction. And the traffic tunnel that entered the tunnel this time is the core passage that will penetrate deep into the heart of the power station in the future.

Overcoming construction difficulties

The access tunnel to the factory is not an ordinary tunnel. It has a total length of over 1300 meters and a spacious cross-section, reaching a width of 8 meters and a height of 10.5 meters. It adopts a stable circular arch straight wall design. In the future life cycle of the power station, it will shoulder a dual mission: it is not only the "construction artery" for excavating underground powerhouses and transporting tens of thousands of tons of stone slag during the construction period, but also the "transportation corridor" for hundreds of tons of heavy precision equipment such as turbines, generators, and main transformers to enter the site during the operation period. It can be said that the progress and quality of this tunnel directly determine the success or failure of subsequent core projects such as underground power plants and water conveyance systems.

However, there are many difficulties in connecting this' aorta '. The geological conditions in the area where the tunnel is located are extremely complex, with alternating soft and hard rock layers, like a "thousand layer cake". During construction, it is necessary to prevent deformation of soft rocks while also dealing with the efficiency of hard rock excavation, resulting in high safety risks and posing extreme challenges to process accuracy and overall process control.

Lead the explosion and clear the obstacles

To ensure a smooth first explosion and smooth entry into the tunnel, the project team put in a lot of embroidery effort. Since entering the site, the project department has adhered to the concept of "high-level promotion, high-level construction, and high-quality demonstration", starting from the details. The reinforcement and support of the slope at the entrance, the careful pouring of the intercepting ditch at the top of the slope, and the production and acceptance of the drilling and blasting trolley... Every preparatory work has been steadily promoted, and a solid safety barrier has been built before construction.

In addition to meticulous internal cultivation, external collaborative efforts are indispensable. The project team actively collaborates with the owner, designer, supervisor, and other units, and has invited industry experts to diagnose and consult multiple times. They have tailored a special construction plan for "precise detection and dynamic support" in response to complex geological conditions, striving to avoid risks in advance and achieve safety and controllability. At the same time, the special working group operated efficiently and successfully solved the pre construction problems such as land acquisition and demolition at the entrance, site leveling, and construction access road construction, clearing the "roadblocks" for the smooth progress of the project and providing solid personnel, technical, and site support.

Empowering a low-carbon future

The construction of Zaozhuang Shanting Pumped Storage Power Station is far more than just an infrastructure project. It is a key milestone for China to build a new type of power system and achieve its "dual carbon" goals. Simply put, it is like a large-scale "green power bank": during periods of low electricity consumption, it uses surplus clean electricity such as wind and solar power to pump water to an upper reservoir for storage; During peak electricity usage, water is released to generate electricity and send it back to the grid.

According to calculations, after the power station is completed and put into operation, the designed annual power generation will be nearly 2 billion kilowatt hours, and approximately 2.6 billion kilowatt hours of intermittent green electricity such as wind power and photovoltaics can be promoted for consumption each year. The comprehensive energy regulation benefits are significant. This will greatly alleviate the problem of new energy consumption, enhance the peak shaving, valley filling, and emergency backup capabilities of the power grid, and significantly improve the reliability of power supply.Editor/Yang Meiling