On the lower reaches of the Jinsha River, at the junction of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, in the narrow and deep valley of the V-shape, a super high arch dam stands tall and stands on the side of the valley. The flood discharge hole gushes out, like a huge white crane spreading its wings in the deep valley to fly. Here is a major national project to implement the "West-to-East Power Transmission", the largest and most technically difficult hydropower project under construction in the world today, and a major national strategic clean energy project-Baihetan Hydropower Station.

On June 28, with the first batch of units put into operation for power generation, this new era of great power will form the world’s largest clean energy corridor with Wudongde, Xiangjiaba, Xiluodu, and the previously completed Three Gorges and Gezhouba hydropower stations. Become a green power engine driving high-quality economic and social development.

Solve the problem of no dam and no crack from the source

Standing on the 289-meter-high Baihetan concrete double-curvature arch dam, He Wei, Party Secretary of the Baihetan Project Construction Department who has just participated in the ceremony for the commissioning of the first batch of units of the Baihetan Hydropower Station on the Jinsha River, said with emotion, “Although everything is expected, but The arrival of this moment is still very emotional!"

As the "old" generation of the Baihetan Hydropower Station builder, He Wei is familiar with the corners of the dam. The dam project is the core of the hydropower station complex, and its engineering quality is related to the long-term safe and stable operation of the hydropower station. The quality of the dam depends on the concrete under my feet. The temperature control of the mass concrete is the key to the construction of a seamless dam. In order to solve the problem of "no dam, no crack" from the source, Baihetan Hydropower Station has carried out a series of innovative work for concrete temperature control. In the dam body, tens of thousands of monitoring instruments are embedded to sense important information such as temperature, deformation, and stress state.

This information is collected in real time and transmitted to the intelligent construction management platform for real-time analysis and judgment, and accurate intelligent control and real-time adjustment of various parameters, making the Baihetan Hydropower Station dam the most "smart" dam.

Every warehouse in Baihetan has innovative genes in the concrete. Lin Peng, a professor in the Department of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering of Tsinghua University, who participated in the construction of the power station, said with emotion, “Faced with the challenges of new technologies in dams and intelligent construction, we often say that we must not only focus on the top, not only books, not only It’s not just him, only the Baihetan Project."

Lin Peng introduced that Tsinghua University and Three Gorges Group jointly developed intelligent water supply equipment and mobile real-time diagnostic control software. By installing digital temperature sensors in newly poured concrete dams and water pipes, they can measure concrete temperature and inlet and outlet water temperatures in real time. The temperature, flow and integrated flow temperature integrated control device installed in the cooling water pipe can also realize dynamic intelligent control. "Tap on the mobile phone, dam construction status and various parameters are fully grasped. The staff can analyze the concrete temperature-water response relationship, progress, seasonal characteristics and other multiple data in real time, which overcomes the complex and multi-scenario adaptive intelligent temperature control of Baihetan problem."

There is also a cave in the underground part

The space of the deep V-shaped canyon is limited. Therefore, the equipment for the entire water diversion and power generation system of Baihetan Hydropower Station is placed in specially excavated underground caverns in the mountains on both sides. The underground powerhouses on both sides of the strait are installed with 8 million-kilowatt hydroelectric generating units. Each one is 438 meters in length, with a top arch span of more than 34 meters and a height of 88.7 meters. It is currently the largest underground powerhouse in the world. In addition, there are also a total of 8 cylindrical tail water surge chambers on the left and right banks with a diameter of 42 to 48 meters, which are also the largest surge surge chambers built in the world.

"The total length of the tunnel of the Baihetan Hydropower Station is about 217 kilometers, which is equivalent to the distance from Shanghai to Ningbo. The excavation volume of the cave is 25 million cubic meters, which is enough to fill two West Lakes, or to build 10 Egyptian Pyramids of Khufu. "Chen Jianlin, chief engineer of the Baihetan Hydropower Project of East China Institute of Technology, told reporters that the underground part of Baihetan Hydropower Station is not only amazing in scale, but also complicated in caverns. The construction difficulty is second to none in the same type of project.

Polish up China to create a new business card

How big is the world's number one million unit? In the underground powerhouse on the left bank of the Baihetan Hydropower Station, "each one million hydropower unit is more than 50 meters high and weighs more than 8,000 tons-a unit is equivalent to the weight of a destroyer." He Wei introduced.

Baihetan mega-kilowatt hydropower unit combines technical standards, practical experience and model tests to design an efficient and matched water flow channel that perfectly handles the coordination relationship between capacity, voltage, speed, efficiency, temperature rise and other parameters, creating a good performance and small size , Simple structure, reliable operation, easy to manufacture, use and maintain a million-kilowatt hydropower unit.

"From hydraulic design, electromagnetic calculation, structural design, to processing and manufacturing, equipment installation, and unit commissioning, it can be said to have achieved the ultimate." Wang Xiaojun, senior technical service engineer of Dongfang Electric, introduced to reporters that the Baihetan million kilowatt hydropower unit is independently owned by China. The designed and manufactured fully domestically produced million-kilowatt generator set has a generator efficiency of 99.01%, which is currently the world's most efficient hydro-turbine generator set. "One is big and the other is fine, just like elephant embroidery." Standing at the heart of the Baihetan Hydropower Station generator set-the world's first "zero counterweight" giant long and short blade hydroelectric generator set runner that passed the acceptance, Qin Daqing, deputy chief engineer of Harbin Electric Group Motor Company, sighed.

"The smaller the distribution weight, the higher the manufacturing technology level and the higher the manufacturing quality of the runner, and the better the running performance after installation in the unit in the future. In the manufacturing process of the runners of Baihetan million kilowatt unit, the runners of the unit have been successfully achieved zero. The counterweight is the first time in the wheel of a giant unit." Such a "Big Mac" can generate about 150 degrees per revolution, which is equivalent to the electricity consumption of an ordinary family in a month.

Located deep in the dry and hot valley inland, Baihetan Hydropower Station has the power to grow outward. The clean electricity generated from here will carry the world's highest level of hydropower construction and help China's economy achieve high-quality development. Data show that after the completion of Baihetan Hydropower Station, it can save about 19.68 million tons of standard coal each year, reduce emissions of about 51.6 million tons of carbon dioxide, about 170,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, and about 150,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, and reduce annual smoke and dust emissions of about 220,000 tons. "The Baihetan Hydropower Station is a well-deserved national weapon. With a steady stream of clean energy output with high quality and low price, it will produce huge ecological, social, economic and other comprehensive benefits, which will greatly promote the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Basin." Chinese Academy of Engineering Academician Wang Hao said.

"With the commissioning of the Baihetan Hydropower Station to generate electricity, the cascade power stations extending from the Jinsha River to the Yangtze River will achieve joint and unified dispatch, which will enlarge the overall benefits of a single hydropower station and achieve overall goals such as flood control, water replenishment, power generation, and water ecological protection. Comprehensive dispatch to give full play to the regulation role of dams and reservoirs." Editor/Tian Zengpeng