Water control 'super project' in the Tianshan Mountains hits milestone

The first two power generation units of the Dashixia Water Control Project in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region were successfully connected to the grid on Tuesday, marking a major milestone for the "super project" nestled deep in the Tianshan Mountains.

Invested in and constructed by China Gezhouba Group, the comprehensive water control hub has officially begun delivering on its designed ecological, irrigation, flood control, and power generation benefits.

The project — with a total installed capacity of 750,000 kilowatts — has set a new world record for a concrete-faced sand and gravel dam with a maximum height of 247 meters.

Despite severe environmental challenges — including an arid, windy climate and rugged, landslide-prone geology — the construction team utilized digital management to achieve ultra-high-precision installation of core components. During trial operations, key indicators such as unit vibration, swing, and bearing temperatures demonstrated excellent performance.

Once fully operational, the Dashixia project will generate an average of 1.89 billion kilowatt-hours annually, enough to meet the electricity needs of some 600,000 households for a year. It will also undertake peak-shaving tasks for power systems across four prefectures in the region, effectively easing regional power supply pressures.

Beyond power generation, it elevates the downstream flood control standard from a once-in-10-years event to once-in-50-years, significantly boosting the region's agricultural modernization and disaster mitigation capabilities.