Amid the rugged ridges of the Qinglong Mountains in Ningguo, Anhui, a giant 'green power bank' with a total installed capacity of 1.2 million kilowatts and an annual power generation of 1.2 billion kilowatt-hours is rising.

As a National First-Class Large (1) Project, the State Grid Xinyuan Anhui Ningguo Pumped Storage Power Station shoulders the strategic mission of peak shaving, energy storage, and emergency reserve for the East China Power Grid. Supporting the high-quality construction of its core works—the 93.4-meter-high upper reservoir concrete face rockfill dam and the 80.2-meter-high lower reservoir dam—is an intelligent construction system deeply integrating IoT and artificial intelligence. As the 'Ningxin Xuli' red engine merges with the wave of intelligent construction, traditional hydraulic engineering is undergoing a digital transformation.

Digital Hub Linking Virtual and Real—7x24 Guardian of Construction Pulse

In the bright and concise 'Shouzheng Hall', a dynamic sand table integrating mountain veins, dam diversion tunnels, and the upper-lower reservoir connecting road is flowing with the light of technology, interpreting the overall project.

Visitors hold tablets and tap the screen; the sand table instantly 'awakens'. Water in the reservoir area surges down the water conveyance pipes, the underground powerhouse units spin rapidly, and LED light bands simulate the power transmission trajectory in real time—the entire pumped storage principle is intuitively presented through dynamic light and shadow, becoming a 'digital war room' for collaborative decision-making among the owner, designer, supervisor, and constructor. In the interplay of light and shadow, the 'experience-driven' approach of traditional hydropower engineering is being reshaped by 'digital-driven' methods.

At the central control center of the Ningguo Pumped Storage Power Station camp, a 70-inch giant screen displays a dynamic project map woven from the light dots of 65 monitoring dome cameras—this is the project's 'Progress Eagle Eye' system.

A gigabit backbone network covering the entire construction site supports a three-tier data hub of 'site-camp-cloud'. In this blue ocean of data, a digital sentry post rotated by party member vanguard teams is on all-weather duty: the day shift closely monitors the full-section filling progress of the lower reservoir, while the late-night shift can bring up the trajectory of transport vehicles at 2 a.m. with a tap of a finger. This never-resting 'digital watchtower' calibrates the direction for every growth of tens of thousands of tons of concrete and steel reinforcement by the minute, and through mobile devices, guardians thousands of miles away can also hear the strong construction heartbeat of the dam.

Smart Sentinels Safeguarding Safety—Transport Speed Measurement and Vehicle Control System

In response to the complex road conditions of steep slopes and continuous sharp curves in the reservoir area, the Ningguo Pumped Storage Power Station has deployed a full-area transport speed measurement network, fastening a 'smart safety belt' for millions of cubic meters of filling materials. At key nodes such as the main roads between the upper and lower reservoirs and the entrances and exits of caverns, millimeter-wave radars and high-definition capture cameras form an all-weather monitoring grid, capturing vehicle speed, vehicle type, and license plate information in real time. Since operation, the over-speed rate and equipment fuel consumption in the construction area have significantly decreased, and accidents on steep slope sections have dropped to zero.

At the critical passages between the upper and lower reservoirs of the Ningguo Pumped Storage Power Station, three intelligent barriers form the core defense line for construction safety. They achieve precise control of 'person-vehicle binding, authorized passage', with the center storing panoramic images and license plate images for 90 days, and front-end photos for more than 30 days. When an unreported vehicle passes the gate, the barrier automatically locks. The project party branch incorporates the barriers into the 'Party Member Safety Responsibility Zone', with party member vanguard posts rotating to verify entry and exit records, cumulatively updating 293 compliant vehicles. With the triple guarantee of 'intelligent authentication + circuit-breaker interception + party member backup', a solid safety barrier is built for project construction, letting the 'Ningxin Xuli' party building brand shine in every precise rise and fall of the barriers.

Quality Revolution in Construction—Intelligent Dam Rolling

Facing quality issues such as missed rolling and over-speeding in traditional construction, the Anhui Ningguo Pumped Storage Power Station innovatively introduced an intelligent rolling system, implanting 'smart nerves' into four rolling machines. By real-time monitoring of control indicators such as rolling trajectory, rolling passes, rolling speed, and vibration state, a dynamic real-time quality control and early warning mechanism is established, keeping the dam filling construction process under systematic monitoring, achieving online real-time monitoring and feedback control, and ensuring the construction quality of dam filling. Comprehensive analysis of rolling parameters provides comprehensive, fast, and accurate information services and decision support for hydropower station construction, operation, and engineering management.

The intelligent dam rolling monitoring at the power station conducts real-time monitoring of rolling construction in construction units such as the rockfill zone, transition material zone, and cushion material zone of the upper and lower reservoir dams. Project managers and roller operators can proactively detect issues such as missed rolling, over-speeding, and insufficient exciting force, and intelligently judge and warn on key indicators such as the running trajectory, speed, passes, and dynamic/static rolling state of rolling equipment, thoroughly solving problems like missed rolling and over-speeding during construction and supervision, improving work efficiency and quality. At the same time, unit result analysis reports are automatically generated, providing a basis for unit engineering quality assessment.

This quality revolution not only solves chronic issues such as missed rolling and over-speeding but also achieves online real-time monitoring and feedback control of the dam filling process, shielding human interference and providing comprehensive, fast, and accurate information services for hydropower station construction, operation, and engineering management.

Life Guardian Penetrating the Earth's Core—Emergency Communication Neural Network

At the Ningguo Pumped Storage Power Station, an intelligent emergency communication system deeply integrating digital twin and IoT technologies is building a life defense line with the standard of 'second-level response, full-area coverage'.

The system uses military-grade IP network intercom terminals as core nodes, connecting the audio network of key areas such as water conveyance tunnels, construction adits, and dam filling. Each terminal is equipped with a 103dB waterproof horn speaker, ensuring voice clarity of over 90% even in the noisy construction environment of heavy machinery.

In a recent comprehensive flood control drill, the system completed the coordinated evacuation command of multiple work faces and more than 200 construction personnel in the upper and lower reservoirs in just 15 minutes, improving efficiency by 300% compared to traditional manual notification.

This digital lifeline penetrating the rock strata turns every alarm into a safety dawn piercing the darkness, truly realizing a new intelligent security paradigm: 'wherever danger is, sound covers it; wherever people are, guidance is precise'.

'Ning' heart gathers strength, with data as the pulse. Amid the roar of machinery and the flow of data at the foot of Qinglong Mountain, the State Grid Xinyuan Anhui Ningguo Pumped Storage Power Station is pouring not only a physical dam with digital craftsmanship but also a monument of the era that transcends tradition.

24-hour video monitoring platform

Intelligent dam rolling system

Digital sand table