Hangzhou setting green transition example for country

Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, is developing a new type of power system by incorporating such clean energy resources as hydropower, wind, solar and storage, so as to raise its proportion of clean energy.

Recently, the city facilitated the Shuangxikou Reservoir — the first medium-sized reservoir with a gravity-arch dam in Zhejiang — to begin to store water and the associated hydropower station begins operations. The city's power supplier, State Grid Hangzhou Power Supply Co, has acknowledged the hydropower facility management.

In its transition to green electricity, Hangzhou is shifting its focus from coal-fired power dominance to wind, solar and hydropower, said Fu Yunxiao from the local State Grid unit.

"Shuangxikou Hydropower Station consists of two 2-megawatt generating units, and its annual power generation is expected to exceed 10 million kilowatt-hours," said Meng Tianqi, who is in charge of Shuangxikou Reservoir, operated by Shandong Water Conservancy Group Co Ltd.

This equates to reducing the burning of 3,000 metric tons of standard coal and cutting carbon emissions by 7,850 tons, which is equivalent to planting 400,000 trees, Meng said.

The hydropower station, located upstream along the Changxi waterway — a major river resource in Lin'an district — shoulders such functions as flood control, water supply, power generation and water quality improvement.

In fact, downstream of Shuangxikou, there are five medium-sized and small hydropower stations, which originally depended on water current conditions for power generation — generating electricity when water flow was good and failing to do so during dry periods.

The operation of Shuangxikou station is akin to adding a large faucet at the source, allowing for the coordinated operation of upstream and downstream stations with a single release of water, thus maximizing the utilization of water resources, Meng said.

Fu noted that to fully explore the potential of small hydropower and photovoltaic resources, State Grid Hangzhou has developed a digital and visual wide-area smart control platform for source network load storage, enabling coordinated power generation of hydropower stations along the same riverway.

With a history of over 5,000 years and now acting as a semi-provincial level city, Hangzhou administers 10 districts, one county-level city and two counties, including Lin'an.

"Simply put, this digital supply assurance platform can send dispatch instructions to multiple hydropower stations in just one minute, increasing power generation by about 13 percent," said Jia Lei, a staffer at State Grid Lin'an District Electric Power Co.

"With this visual energy supply scheduling management model, we can manage over 70 hydropower stations in Lin'an in a tiered and orderly manner, maximizing water resource utilization efficiency," Jia said.

Currently, transmission lines of green electricity weave through the mountains and plains of Hangzhou, bringing renewable energy from rugged terrain to the homes of its 12.5 million residents, he said.