The Three Gorges underground power plant initiated a 72-hour trial starting at 10 a.m. on May 9 and all 5,000 kilowatts of electricity it produces will be transported to East China, Xinhua reported today.

Zhang Chengping, the director of the Electricity and Mechanical Engineering Bureau, said that the trial is a comprehensive test for the electricity-generating equipment before it officially begins working.

During the test of reliability, the equipment will be functioning under the same conditions as it would in normal operations, so most problems should be recognized during the tests. After the trial, technicians will also do a comprehensive examination to the equipment and make sure it can reach normal standards for going into official use.

The underground power plant of Three Gorges is located in a mountain at the right bank of the great dam, and it is called "the last two riddles of the Three Gorges Projects" as well as the Three Gorges Ship Elevator.

According to the plan, a total of six 700,000-kilowatt hydraulic generators will be installed. After all electric generating sets are in production, the total installed power capacity of Three Gorges will increase by 4.2 million kilowatts, which is equal to that of one and a half Gezhouba power plants.

source: People's Daily Online