On August 26, the first unit of the Phase II project of the Meizhou Pumped Storage Power Station, the first pumped storage project in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area under the 14th Five-Year Plan, was put into operation for power generation. The project was surveyed and designed by Zhongnan Engineering Corporation and constructed by Sinohydro Bureau 8, significantly enhancing the power grid regulation capacity of the Greater Bay Area.

The Guangdong Meizhou Pumped Storage Power Station has an installed capacity of 2.4 million kilowatts and is being built in two phases, each with four single-stage vertical-shaft single-speed mixed-flow reversible units of 300 megawatts each. Both the electromechanical installation and the in-tunnel civil works are undertaken by Sinohydro Bureau 8. The Phase I project was fully commissioned by the end of May 2022, setting the shortest construction period record for the main works of a comparable power station in China. The first unit of Phase II also completed installation and commissioning in nearly 18 months, achieving the fastest installation and commissioning speed for the same number of units at a pumped storage power station in China and setting the "Meizhou Speed" benchmark in the field of pumped storage power station construction.

Since the start of the project, all project department personnel have devoted themselves to construction with a high sense of mission and responsibility, pursuing their original aspirations with craftsmanship. Facing multiple challenges such as a tight schedule and heavy tasks, they united their efforts and overcame difficulties. Through Party building guiding production and operations, they continuously optimized construction processes and strengthened technical control, significantly improving project quality and construction efficiency, ensuring the efficient progress of the project and laying a solid foundation for Sinohydro Bureau 8's development in the pumped storage field.

At present, the project department is making every effort to advance the installation and commissioning of the remaining units, with full-capacity grid-connected power generation expected by the end of 2025. By then, the Meizhou Pumped Storage Power Station will provide strong support for practicing the national "dual carbon" goals and inject green momentum into the high-quality development of the regional economy.

Once this giant "super power bank," with a total investment of over 10 billion yuan, is completed and put into operation, it can absorb up to about 7.2 billion kilowatt-hours of clean energy per year, correspondingly reducing standard coal consumption by about 2.18 million tons and carbon dioxide emissions by about 5.9 million tons. Its clean energy absorption capacity will be the strongest among pumped storage power stations of the same scale in China. It will undertake important functions such as peak shaving, valley filling, and frequency regulation for the power grid of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, enhance the region's capacity to absorb new energy, and provide strong support for the energy structure transformation of the Greater Bay Area.