On the morning of September 25, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Laoyingyan Phase I Hydropower Station on the Dadu River was held on the banks of the Dadu River in Shimian County, marking the project's main works entering the stage of full-scale construction. Once completed, the project will effectively enhance the region's power supply capacity and boost green, low-carbon development.

The Laoyingyan Phase I Hydropower Station is located in Shimian County, Ya'an City, Sichuan Province. It is a major national clean energy project with a total installed capacity of 300 MW and an average annual power generation of approximately 1.37 billion kWh over multiple years. The project was planned, demonstrated, surveyed and designed at all stages by PowerChina Chengdu Engineering Corporation. The station adopts bulb tubular turbine-generator units with the largest single-unit capacity in Asia, independently developed by China, achieving a major breakthrough in key energy equipment technology and holding important strategic significance for enhancing the capacity for independent energy supply.

As the 17th cascade hydropower station in the development of the Dadu River main stream, the station has a construction period of 60 months. Once completed, it will become a backbone power source for the Sichuan power grid, replacing 1.439 billion kWh of thermal power generation each year, saving 432,000 tonnes of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1.122 million tonnes. It will significantly ease the contradiction between power supply and demand, inject green momentum into the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, and provide strong support for optimizing the energy structure and promoting rural revitalization and economic and social development in the region.