Fast-Growing China's Hydropower Systems and Operation Challenges

Abstract

During the past two decades, in particular the past decade, the construction of hydropower and power grid was under rapid development stage. It is foreseeable that the same rate of development will be maintained in the next decade. The installed generation capacity of hydropower in China has now surpassed 200GW and ranks first in the world.The rate of expansion and scales of construction are very rare in the world history. The operation and management of large-scale hydropower systems have become one of significant factors in constraining the security and economic operation of power grid in China. With the appearance of huge hydropower plants in the southern region of China, the large-scale hydropower transmission with multi-level regulation, the multiple vibration zones for plants with huge capacity and high head, peak regulation for trans-provincial and trans-region multi-power grids, aggravation of influence of extreme climate on operation of hydropower, the solution efficiency and practicality of hydropower system, etc, are fresh difficulties which pose a real challenge to the modelers and have a great impact on hydropower scheduling and operations. There are needs for finding their solutions. This article introduces the current status of construction and development of hydropower in China, analyzes the new challenges that it faces, highlights the key scientific and technological issues that need to be solved, and pinpoints that the solution of these problems will be the key to the realization of energy saving and emission reduction by China in 2020.