ABB wins contract for dispatch center at Three Gorges Power Station, China

A contract has been awarded to ABB for the Three Gorges Hydro Power Station concerning a computer based supervisory control system for the left bank of the power station. Three Gorges Project Development Corporation has procured a cascade dispatch center interfacing to plant control systems. The contract value is 5.6 MUSD.

"The Three Gorges Hydro-Power Project is built on the Yangtze, China´s largest river. It will complete a shiplock for water storage in 2003. That is when the first group of 14 generators becomes operational, with a combined installed capacity of 9,800 MW at the Left-Bank Power Station. The control systems are essential for safe and efficient operation of Three Gorges Hydro-Power Project." says Huang Yuanfang, deputy chief engineer. When the complete power station is established by 2008, the capacity will be 18,000 MW produced by 26 generators and Three Gorges will be the largest hydro generation plant in the world.

ABBs delivery comprises a system for supervisory control, which interfaces to plant control systems supplied by Alstom Power. The objective is to cater for an efficient power production, minimizing cost while observing potential flood situations and other disturbances. The control center will also monitor the transfer of generated power over the high-voltage DC and AC lines to the east of China.

The control system will comprise 14 operator´s consoles and in addition large screens for dam and navigation monitoring as well as power dispatch. In addition a training center will be established in Yichang, 30 km away. The computers are redundant for highest operational availability, for both real-time and data warehousing. A great number of computer interconnections via the high-speed local area network will also be provided.

"The development of functions for generation management is rapidly enhancing and new needs for improved power systems control constantly arise. One success factor for ABB is our competence which we use for offering cost efficient individual customer solutions built on our standard product modules. For this contract we offer the latest in Industrial IT for power generation", says Kjell Gustafsson, Manager of ABB Utility Automation.

ABB Electric Utilities , , Zurich, , CH, . Tel: +41 56 299 2338; Fax: +41 56 299 2260.