The Shisanling Pumped Storage Power Station is a pumped-storage power station in Changping County of Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. The power station contains four reversible turbines for an installed capacity of 800 MW.

Background

Planning and designs for the power station commenced in 1974 and in 1988, the National Electric Power Ministry and People's Government of Beijing decided to go forth with the project. Construction was initiated that year and by 1995, the first unit was in operation.

Shisanling Dam

The Shisanling Dam creates the power station's lower reservoir and was an already existing dam. The earth-fill embankment dam

Embankment dam

An embankment dam is a massive artificial water barrier. It is typically created by the emplacement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil, sand, clay and/or rock. It has a semi-permanent waterproof natural covering for its surface, and a dense, waterproof...

 is 29 metres (95 ft) high and 627 metres (2,057 ft) long. The dam creates a reservoir that can store 59000000 cubic metre of water and contains a controlled chute spillway

Spillway

A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of flows from a dam or levee into a downstream area, typically being the river that was dammed. In the UK they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways release floods so that the water does not overtop and damage or even destroy...

.

Upper reservoir

From the lower reservoir, water is pumped up into the upper reservoir which has a normal storage capacity of 51000000 cubic metre. The upper reservoir is artificial was built into the Mang mountain with the assistance of a 75 metres (246 ft) high and 550 metres (1,804 ft) long concrete face rock-fill dam. When power is being generated, the water leaves the reservoir and falls through two penstock

Penstock

A penstock is a sluice or gate or intake structure that controls water flow, or an enclosed pipe that delivers water to hydraulic turbines and sewerage systems. It is a term that has been inherited from the technology of wooden watermills....

s down towards the power station which is underground and just above the lower reservoir. Before reaching the reversible turbines, the water branches off into four branch pipes.

Power station

The four branch pipes feed water into the four turbines. Each reversible turbine has a 200 MW installed capacity. The turbines and generators are stored in an underground power house measuring 145 metres (476 ft) long, 23 metres (75 ft) wide and 46.6 metres (153 ft) high. After power is produced, the water is discharged back into the lower reservoir and the entire process can repeat again.