The Civil Engineering Contractor May 2018 | Page 15

The Three Gorges Dam in China is the  world’s
largest power station in terms of installed capacity.
In 2014, the dam generated 98.8 terawatt-hours
(TWh) and had the world record but was beaten by
Itaipú Dam in 2016, producing 103.1TWh.
Barring the locks, the project was completed and
fully functional as of 4 July 2012, when the last of
the main  water turbines  in the underground plant
began production. The ship lift was completed in
December 2015 while the dam body was completed
in 2006. Each main water turbine has a capacity of
700MW. Coupling the dam’s 32 main turbines with
two smaller generators (50MW each) to power the
plant itself, the total electric generating capacity of
the dam is a mammoth 22 500MW. nn
CEC May 2018 - 13