The world's largest pumped storage power station has been fully put into operation for power generation! On December 31st, Unit 11 of the State Grid Fengning Pumped Storage Power Station in Hebei Province was put into commercial operation after intensive debugging and trial operation, and was in good condition, marking the full operation of this "hydropower power bank" with 12 units. Why is it called a 'water energy power bank'? In daily life, people often use mobile phone power banks to charge and store energy, and when the phone's battery is low, let it discharge for emergency use. Pumped storage power stations follow the same principle. The upper reservoir of the power station is located in the center of the valley, like a natural basin, connected to the lower reservoir through six bidirectional waterways with a diameter of about 7 meters built deep in the mountain Zhao Risheng, the director of the operation department of Fengning Power Station, said that the drop of more than 400 meters allows water to achieve mutual conversion of electrical energy and potential energy in the lifting room. The reason why Fengning Power Station is called a "hydroelectric power bank" is that when the power system has surplus electricity, the power station uses wind and photovoltaic power to pump water to high places for storage, and then releases water to generate electricity when the power is insufficient, achieving "energy storage power generation backup", thereby solving the problem of difficult energy storage and regulating the supply-demand contradiction. In recent years, the installed capacity of new energy power generation in North China Power Grid has grown rapidly, exceeding 270 million kilowatts as of now. The proportion of new energy in the power system is constantly increasing, which puts higher demands on the flexible regulation ability of the power system. In this situation, "hydro power banks" can play a significant role. Ni Jinbing, Chairman of State Grid Xinyuan Hebei Fengning Pumped Storage Co., Ltd., stated that pumped storage power stations can play a role as "stabilizers," "regulators," and "balancers" in the entire power grid, solving the problems of randomness, volatility, and intermittency in new energy generation such as wind and solar power. Ni Jinbing said that the "Water Energy Charging Treasure" uses water as a medium to store surplus wind and solar green electricity in the Zhangchengba area through the conversion of electrical energy and potential energy. It not only maintains the safety of the power grid and reduces wind and solar power abandonment, but also ensures the supply of green electricity in the Beijing Tianjin Hebei region. How big is it? As the largest pumped storage power station in the world, Fengning Power Station has created four "world firsts" in pumped storage power station construction. The world's largest installed capacity. The power station has installed 12 sets of 300000 kW single-stage reversible water pump hydroelectric generator sets, with a total installed capacity of 3.6 million kW, making it the world's largest pumped storage power station in terms of installed capacity. The world's top energy storage capacity. The reservoir on the power station can store nearly 40 million kilowatt hours of new energy electricity at once, and the 12 units can operate at full capacity for 10.8 hours. It is the only pumped storage power station in North China with weekly regulation performance, ensuring that it can demonstrate its capabilities in energy storage and regulation. The underground factory building has the world's largest scale. To show off one's skills, there must be a large space. The underground powerhouse of Fengning Power Station has a total length of 414 meters, a height of 54.5 meters, and a span of 25 meters, making it currently the largest pumped storage power station underground powerhouse. The underground cavern group has the world's largest scale. During the construction process, Fengning Power Station systematically overcame key technologies for the construction of super large underground caverns under complex geological conditions for the first time. There are as many as 190 underground caverns with a total length of 50.14 kilometers, and the underground engineering scale is huge. From May 2013 to the last unit being put into operation for power generation, in 11 years, the world's largest pumped storage power station was independently designed and constructed, creating multiple records in the history of pumped storage development in China. The 11th unit put into operation today is an AC excitation variable speed unit. Compared with traditional fixed speed units, it has advantages such as effective regulation of water pump power, higher operating efficiency, and more flexible scheduling Wang Zhiyuan, an engineer from the Mechanical and Electrical Department of Fengning Power Station, said that by changing the unit speed and flexibly adjusting the pumping load within a certain range, it can more flexibly respond to the electricity demand of the power grid. This is also the first time that large-scale variable speed pumped storage unit technology has been adopted in China. It fills the application gap of large-scale AC excitation variable speed pumped storage units in China, opens up new ideas for the upgrading of pumped storage industry technology and precise coordination with new energy output fluctuation regulation, and accumulates experience for the construction of pumped storage power stations in China. How much 'green' can it bring? The clean energy industry has the characteristics of low carbon, environmental protection, and renewability, and is an advantageous industry with minimal ecological impact and high economic benefits. Among them, pumped storage projects have high conversion efficiency and large energy storage capacity, and are an important component of the clean energy industry. The Luan River is an important water source for the Beijing Tianjin region, and improving the ecological environment of the Luan River region is related to the overall coordinated development of the Beijing Tianjin Hebei region. During the construction of Fengning Power Station, in conjunction with the Luan River Water Environment Treatment Project, a new sand trap was built to regulate and store sediment, and over 1.8 million cubic meters of silt were cleared from the bottom of the Luan River main stream in the project area. In the construction of the power station, the engineering team has been committed to local biodiversity conservation for a long time and has successfully cultivated 510 key protected plants in Hebei Province, including the Mongolian oak; Actively improving the ecological environment of the Luanhe wetland, increasing the wetland area of the project area by more than 800 acres, and attracting rare bird species such as black storks, white storks, white wagtails, and white swans to inhabit. After the Fengning Power Station is fully put into operation, it can save 480800 tons of standard coal annually, reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.2 million tons, equivalent to afforestation of 240000 acres, and effectively promote the clean and low-carbon transformation of energy in the Beijing Tianjin Hebei region Ni Jinbing said that with all 12 units of the power station put into operation, the annual power generation will reach 6.6 billion kilowatt hours, which can meet the electricity needs of 2.6 million households for one year. (New Society)