The installation of the first batch of generating units is under way at the Three Gorges Hydro-electric Station on China's Yangtze River, contractors said Sunday.
Engineers with Gezhouba Group Co., which was contracted to install the units, said two generating units were scheduled to come into operation in August and two more in October, with a designed generating capacity of 700,000 kw.
They are expected to produce 5.5 billion kwh this year. And 22 more units will be installed from 2004 to 2009.
Construction of the Three Gorges project began in 1993 and is expected to be completed in 2009, when a total of 26 power generating units with a combined capacity of 18.2 million kw will go into operation.
Actual investment in the project is expected to reach 180 billion yuan (US$22 billion), 20 billion yuan (US$2.43 billion) less than the total budget for the project.
(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2003)
