Abstract
Southwest China plays a key role in global hydropower; its current installed capacity is roughly equal to that of the rest of Asia. This immense hydropower capacity stems from some of the world’s largest dams as well as the world’s greatest density of smaller projects. However, our knowledge about the region’s hydropower utilisation patterns and spatio-temporal impacts is based on limited empirical data. This chapter provides a detailed analysis of the uneven spatio-temporal hydropower development in the area and the fluctuating oversupply of hydroelectricity. While as of 2019 hydropower development is advanced in Sichuan (77 GW, 316 TWh) and Yunnan (64 GW, 270 TWh), it is still in an early stage in Tibet. However, Tibet’s hydropower development might even surpass both provinces in the future. The second part of the chapter analyses the utilisation of hydroelectricity, with an emphasis on Yunnan. Our analysis focuses on the trade-offs (benefits, disadvantages, and current trends) related to large-scale power exports to coastal load centres, mapping out these exports for all of Southwest China. Further, we discuss the unique role of power-intensive industries within Yunnan and the impacts of rural electrification on local utilisation of hydropower.
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Notes
- 1.
All data in this article, if not cited otherwise, are based on China’s National or Provincial Bureau of Statistics. Data were published in different years and in different sections of those national or provincial yearbooks. Some data were collected from printed versions, others from websites of statistical offices.
- 2.
Hydropower without pumped storage. In 2019, China had another 31 GW of installed pumped storage capacity. If not mentioned separately, we always refer in this article to conventional hydropower.
- 3.
Curtailment refers to electricity that is not put to productive use through transmission to the grid or to a productive end-user such as a nearby factory.
- 4.
That is, the ability of dam reservoirs to store sufficient quantities of water over the year so as to ensure predictable and regular hydropower generation even through the dry season.
- 5.
Limited storage in reservoirs, of course, is generally a good thing for ecosystems, primarily because water quality in reservoirs tends to be lower than in free-flowing rivers, and because large reservoirs contribute to significant habitat fragmentation. Here, ‘poor’ is meant to qualify the dam system from an electricity production perspective only.
- 6.
Power evacuation refers to the movement of power from a generator to the grid or load centre.
- 7.
Run-of-river hydropower plants are so named because they have limited to no reservoir storage, and their outflows equal their inflows.
- 8.
References to data on the websites of China’s two large power grids, namely State Grid Corporation of China (SGC) and China Southern Power Grid (CSPG), refer specifically to the Chinese news section of their homepage. For example ‘SGC 2019’ means that the information was published in 2019 on the SGC page. Note that some older data (before 2018) can be found in the Social Responsibility Reports of SGC and CSPG.
- 9.
Ultra-high-voltage DC (UHVDC) usually refers to direct current transmission lines capable of voltages greater than 500 kV.
- 10.
See Local and regional utilisation of hydroelectricity section below, as well as Hennig and Harlan (2018).
- 11.
Inner Mongolia is partly served by a small third state grid monopoly that only fulfils local distribution.
- 12.
Back-to-back converters enable the interconnection of DC and AC grids, and of AC grids operating at different frequencies.
- 13.
The GBA includes the Pearl River Delta, Hong Kong, and Macao.
- 14.
Comparable statistical data from China’s State Grid differ from these figures, being 3 TWh lower in 2010 and 17 TWh higher in 2017.
- 15.
Dehong was the second prefecture in China to be completely electrified.
- 16.
For a more comprehensive discussion of hydropower’s under-utilisation in the southwest, see also Magee’s chapter in this volume.
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Acknowledgements
Thomas Hennig acknowledges funding from DFG (German Research Foundation), grant HE 5951, 4-1 and 6-1.
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Hennig, T., Magee, D. (2021). The Water-Energy Nexus of Southwest China’s Rapid Hydropower Development: Challenges and Trade-Offs in the Interaction Between Hydropower Generation and Utilisation. In: Rousseau, JF., Habich-Sobiegalla, S. (eds) The Political Economy of Hydropower in Southwest China and Beyond. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59361-2_2
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