Emin County in Tacheng area, located in the deep mountains upstream of the Bulkuotai River. On July 24, 2026, the design and power supply standards of the Emin Pumped Storage Power Station were announced on the same day - the design bidding and 35kV construction power supply EPC general contracting two core sections were promoted on the same day, marking that the first million kilowatt level pumped storage power station in northern Xinjiang is about to enter the comprehensive construction stage.

581 meter head driven giant unit

The Emin Pumped Storage Power Station is a Class I large (1) project with a total installed capacity of 1400 megawatts and four 350 megawatt vertical shaft single-stage mixed flow reversible water pump turbine units installed. The rated net head is 581 meters, with a full operating time of 6 hours. The designed annual power generation is 1.983 billion kilowatt hours, and the annual pumped water output is 2.644 billion kilowatt hours.

The hub project adopts a layout of two tunnels and four machines for water transportation. The upper reservoir is an asphalt concrete face rockfill dam with a maximum height of 60 meters and a secondary dam of 28 meters; The lower reservoir is an asphalt concrete core rockfill dam, with a maximum height of 85 meters, and an upstream supporting sand dam. The superposition of two dams is equivalent to a nearly 48 story high-rise building, with a water head drop of 581 meters sufficient to drive the operation of a giant turbine unit at full capacity. The total investment of the project is about 10.526 billion yuan, and the total construction period is 72 months.

5 billion yuan loan locked in

The funds have been secured in advance. The three major banks of China Development Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and Construction Bank have won the bid to undertake loans, with a total loan amount not exceeding 5 billion yuan and a minimum interest rate of 2.75% per year. This interest rate level is lower than the loan interest rate for general infrastructure projects during the same period, which indirectly confirms that the project is considered a high-quality asset financially.

The planned new energy installed capacity in Tacheng area exceeds 85 million kilowatts, making it the largest concentrated area for wind and solar power generation in northern Xinjiang. Wind and solar power generation is constrained by weather and time periods, and has natural intermittency and volatility. After the completion of the Emin Pumped Storage Power Station, the annual consumption of new energy will exceed 2.6 billion kilowatt hours, reducing wind and solar power curtailment by 1.2 billion kilowatt hours. The regional utilization rate of new energy is expected to increase by 8 percentage points, which is equivalent to building a giant power bank for the northern Xinjiang power grid to store energy during low demand periods and release energy during peak demand periods, responding to the grid's frequency regulation and peak shaving needs in milliseconds. Keywords: energy storage power station, new energy project

When the units in the deep mountain valleys start operating, the wind and solar resources in Tacheng will truly transform from relying on sky power generation to stable electricity that can be stored and released.Editor/Cheng Liting