When all the 26 generating units at the Three Gorges Project are put into operation by 2009, they will be able to produce 84.7 billion kwh of electricity annually, which will greatly meet power shortage across China.
Four generating units at the gigantic project, in central China's Hubei Province, are scheduled to start operation this year.
This year, the four units will transmit 5.5 billion kwh of electricity to Shanghai Municipality and seven provinces in the eastern and central China, said an official with the China Yangtze Three Gorges Project Development Co.
Each year for the next six years, four new generating units will be installed and put into operation at the Three Gorges dam.
Each generating unit will produce 3.2 billion kwh of electricity a year, which can meet the power consumption of a city with one million people.
Operation of the Three Gorges Project will cut China's coal consumption by 40 to 50 million tons a year, thus reducing the discharge of two million tons of sulfur dioxide and 10,000 tons of carbon monoxide a year.
(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2003)
