The morning mist in the hinterland of the Dabie Mountains has not yet dissipated, and the roar of machinery has already been heard in the mountain valleys of Huangwei Town, Yuexi County. On the morning of July 29, 2026, with the issuance of the construction order, the underground powerhouse and water transmission and power generation system of State Grid Xinyuan Anhui Yuexi Pumped Storage Power Station officially broke ground - this means that the super power bank hidden deep in the mountains has entered the core construction stage from the preparation of tunnel excavation. In the future, when there is a lot of wind and solar power at night, it will pump water to a higher place for storage; During peak electricity usage during the day, water can be drained to generate electricity, like installing a giant rechargeable battery on the Anhui power grid.

Falling in the Dabie Mountains

The power station is located in Huangwei Town, Yuexi County. The upper reservoir is located in the low-lying area at the source of Wangjiagou on the Yunfeng River, and the lower reservoir is located in the downstream section of Yinzhu River. The rated head is 359 meters, and the total installed capacity is 1.2 million kilowatts, equivalent to four 300000 kilowatt reversible units working together on the same site. The designed annual power generation is about 1.2 billion kilowatt hours, and the annual pumping capacity is about 1.6 billion kilowatt hours. The overall construction period is 64 months, with a total investment of about 7.528 billion yuan. It is the eighth pumped storage power station laid out by State Grid in Anhui Province, and also a key implementation project in the national pumped storage medium and long-term development plan. It is connected to the East China Power Grid through two 500 kV lines.

Steel giant dragon passes through mountains

The underground powerhouse and water transmission and power generation system that started construction this time are called the heart section of the entire power station by the builders, covering hard projects such as water transmission tunnels, underground powerhouses, metal structure installation, and safety monitoring. The TBM tunnel boring machine called Anyue at the construction site has an excavation diameter of 8.23 meters and a total weight of over 1700 tons. It needs to gnaw through a critical tunnel of about 2200 meters, and simultaneously advance the excavation, support, and slag removal into a single line, which is 3 to 5 times more efficient than traditional drilling and blasting methods. The overall construction period can be reduced by about 6 months, and the number of workers in the tunnel is also greatly reduced.

As early as November 2025, the Anyue ship departed from the ventilation and safety tunnel. Currently, the ventilation and safety tunnel has been completed, and various key route tunnels are progressing according to the nodes. China Railway Third Bureau has taken on the task of constructing underground power plants and water transmission and power generation systems, while China Aneng has participated in the reservoir project. This underground giant dragon has transformed the construction of pumping and storage chambers from human drilling and blasting to intelligent equipment.

Green electricity stable production escort

By around 2030, when it is fully put into operation, this power station will take over the heavy tasks of peak shaving and valley filling, frequency and phase modulation, and emergency backup of Anhui power grid, specifically to stabilize the fluctuations of photovoltaic wind power in western Anhui and undertake large-scale grid connection of new energy in Dabie Mountains. According to calculations, it can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 1.68 million tons and burn less coal by about 650000 tons per year, making up a key piece for Anhui to become a 10 million kilowatt level green energy storage base in the Yangtze River Delta.keywords:New energy information network

For the villagers of Huangwei Town, the construction site brings work at their doorstep, widened village roads, and thriving rural tourism. Not only electricity, but also the confidence for the revitalization of old areas can be dug out from the green mountains and clear waters. 64 months later, when the first unit rotates, the construction in Dabie Mountains will steadily deliver every kilowatt hour of green electricity into the lamps of East China.Editor/Yang Meiling