The Yimeng pumped storage power project located in the Shangdong province of China comprises four generating units for a total capacity of 1.2GW.

State Grid Xinyuan Company, a subsidiary of State Grid Corporation of China, is developing the power station with an estimated investment of £841m ($1.08bn).

The project was approved in September 2014 while the preliminary construction works were started in June 2015. The main construction works were started in November 2016, followed by the start of mechanical and electrical installation works in October 2018.

The first unit of the Yimeng hydropower station was hoisted in September 2020 and it is expected to come online in 2021, while the full commissioning of the power plant is planned for September 2022.

Project Gallery

Once fully operational, Yimeng pumped storage hydropower station is expected to supply 2.01 billion kWh of electricity annually to the southern area of Shangdong.

Location and site details

The Yimeng pumped storage hydro project is located in Xuezhuang Town in Feixian County, approximately 69km away from Linyi city, in the Shangdong province of China.

The project site lies approximately 24km away from the Feixian Highway and 32km away from the Yimeng substation.

Yimeng pumped storage facility make-up

The Yimeng pumped storage hydroelectric facility will comprise upper and lower reservoirs, an underground powerhouse, and a ground switchyard station.

The underground powerhouse will be equipped with four single-stage, mixed flow reversible Francis hydro-generator sets of 300MW capacity each. The rated head for the pumped storage units will be 375m.

The upper reservoir is formed by a 117.4m-tall asphalt concrete face rockfill dam. It has a storage capacity of 8.56 million cubic metres (mcm) and its normal storage level is 606m.

A 78.6m-tall reinforced concrete face rockfill dam forms the lower reservoir, which is located at the inlet of Luyugou on the right bank of Shilan Reservoir. The lower reservoir has a normal storage level of 220m and a storage capacity of 10.25mcm.

The water delivery system of the project includes a one-hole two-machine water supply system.

Infrastructure facilities

The other infrastructure facilities for the Yimeng power plant include an asphalt mixing station, steel pipe processing plant, water branch tunnel, main transformer tunnel, tailgate chamber, sand, and gravel aggregate system, and other equipment facilities.

Power evacuation 

The electricity generated by the 1.2GW Yimeng pumped-storage hydropower facility will be evacuated through two 500kV power transmission lines and connected to the Shangdong power grid. 

Contractors involved 

The 14th Hydropower Bureau-Chengshu Electric Power Yimeng Power Station Consortium was awarded a contract worth £26.86m ($35.88m) by SGCC for the electromechanical installation of the Yimeng hydropower station in June 2018.

China Power Construction Hydropower Fourth Bureau was contracted for civil construction works, while DongFang Electric Company was contracted for the supply of generator sets along with auxiliary equipment in November 2017. 

Geokon was awarded a contract worth £1.47m ($2.19m) by SGCC for safety instrument monitoring of the hydropower project in December 2015.

Hangzhou Huaxin Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Company was contracted for the construction of two 275 tonnes (t) bridge cranes for the project. 

Beijing Zhongshui Kehaili Engineering Technology Company was contracted for the surface water stop installation of the lower reservoir.

Nangang Hydroelectric Steel was selected for supply of steel for Penstocks at the Yimeng pumped Storage project, while East China Consulting Yimeng Supervision Centre was appointed as the construction supervisor for the project.