Major water conservancy project begins power generation in China's Xinjiang

The first batch of generating units at the Dashixia Water Conservancy Project in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was connected to the grid on Tuesday, its construction comany said.

Located in Wensu Grand Canyon in Xinjiang's Aksu Prefecture, the project's 247-meter-high dam is currently the world's highest concrete-faced sand-gravel dam, China Gezhouba Group Co., Ltd said.

When fully operational, the hub will generate over 1.89 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to meet the electricity needs of about 600,000 households.

It will also channel 3.42 billion cubic meters of water to the Tarim River each year, easing shortages on more than 6.8 million mu (about 450,000 hectares) of farmland, while boosting flood control and advancing agricultural modernization in southern Xinjiang.

During construction, blockchain technology was used to collect concrete data and manage transportation, making project quality controllable and traceable, said project manager Song Xiaojian.

To mitigate the project's impact on fish, the construction company invested 65 million yuan (around $9.7 million) in ecological protection measures, which went into operation ahead of schedule, according to Yang Yanling, who is with the project's quality and environmental protection department.

So far, 141,000 fish have been released through artificial propagation, Yang added.