China starts running 3rd largest hydropower station

BEIJING, Dec 26 (Reuters) - China on Friday began fully operating the first phase of Longtan, its third largest hydropower station, Xinhua reported, a development would consolidate its effort to ship energy from landlocked west China to energy-hungry coastal regions.

Construction of the first phase, consisting of 7 generators with 700 megawatts of generating capacity each, started in 2001 and first generator was put into use in 2007.

The plant will have total generating capacity of 6.3 gigawatts (GW) after another two generators are ready, the report said.

It did not say how much the project would cost or when all construction works would be completed.

More than 80,000 residents in 10 counties in Guangxi region and neighbouring Guizhou province had been relocated for Longtan, Xinhua had reported.

With the addition of the plant, generating capacity of China Datang Corp, the parent of Datang Power (601991.SS)(0991.HK), topped 80 GW, rivalling Huaneng Group, parent of Huaneng (0902.HK)(600011.SS), China's largest power generating firm.

Datang's hydropower capacity as a result reached 13.34 GW, the largest among China's five major power generating groups.

China has fully brought the Three Gorges Power station into operation, which houses 26 generators of 700 megawatts each, its largest.

Xiluodu, the second largest, will have 18 generators of the same size each when construction is completed in 2017.