Zhang Yanbin, an expert with the project, said power generation would begin on schedule after Chinese and foreign technical workers had ironed out equipment problems at workshops downstream on the north bank.

Zhang said that among the 26 power-generating units planned for the Three Gorges Project, the No 2 and No 5 units would be put into operation in August, and the No 3 and No 6 would start in October.

Under the operating schedule, the four generators, each with an installed capacity of 700,000 kilowatts, will generate a total of 5.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity this year.

This year, the four units will transmit 5.5 billion kwh of electricity to Shanghai and seven provinces.

When all the 26 generating units at the Three Gorges are put into operation by 2009, they will be able to produce 84.7 billion kwh of electricity annually.

Each year for the next six years, four new generating units will be installed and put into operation at the Three Gorges dam. Each generating unit will produce 3.2 billion kwh of electricity a year, which can meet the power consumption of a city with 1 million people.

Three Gorges Project will cut coal consumption by 40 to 50 million tons a year, reducing the discharge of 2 million tons of sulfur dioxide and 10,000 tons of carbon monoxide a year.

(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2003)