Conghua Hydraulic Power Station

The Conghua Hydraulic Power Station located in Guangzhou Province near Hong Kong and Shenzhen is owned and operated by the China Southern Power Grid. It is the first pumped storage hydro plant in China and the largest in the world. The plant has eight 300-MW generating units. It was built in a package with the Dayawan Nuclear Plant for reliability and load balancing reasons (nuclear plants provide base load output).

At the beginning of operations, the Dayawan nuclear site made up a large percentage of the power flowing through the grid; this, plus the inconvenience of shutting it (and other plants in a coal/nuclear power dominated region) down, made the Dayawan facility a possible threat to grid reliability during trough demand times (if supply were to overshoot demand).

Thus, when the power on the grid exceeds demand by 10%, the Conghua station uses the excess power to pump water into storage. Due to its economy, peak and trough demand levels in southern China (including Guangzhou) differ much more than other regions, making the plant useful for load smoothing.

In China’s non-competitive electricity markets, pumped storage plants which play a significant role in maintaining grid reliability are often owned by the state-owned grid company. Because this particular plant uses about 4 kWh of electricity to generate 3 kWh, it would not be economical if compensated based on electricity produced (peak demand prices do not rise enough to recoup the plant’s costs). Rather, it receives a fixed annual payment determined in a long-term contract.

Like the Dayawan nuclear site, the government has turned Conghua’s reservoir area into a tourist destination, complete with a five-star hotel and a promotional video showcasing this “miracle of the Chinese people.”