Recently, the "Zhumeng" (Chasing Dreams), China's first variable-diameter vertical shaft reaming boring machine independently developed by China Railway Engineering Equipment Group, reported another success in the construction of the Zhejiang Yongjia Pumped Storage Power Station, successfully completing the excavation of No. 1 diversion vertical shaft with a total depth of 488 meters, setting a precedent for 500-meter-class deep vertical shaft construction in China's pumped storage sector.

 The "Zhumeng" has an overall height of 27 meters and is designed with an excavation diameter of 7.23 meters. Based on raise boring technology, it innovatively adopts a comprehensive method of "directional drilling + raise drilling + reaming boring machine shaft enlargement" to replace the traditional drill-and-blast approach. During excavation, the "Zhumeng" set outstanding records of 16.8 meters of advance in a single day and 200 meters in a single month, demonstrating exceptional excavation efficiency and stability, further verifying its construction capability under complex deep-shaft geological conditions, and accumulating valuable experience for mechanized vertical shaft construction in China's large-scale hydropower projects.

The Zhejiang Yongjia Pumped Storage Power Station is a key project in China's medium- and long-term development plan for pumped storage, a key implementation project of Zhejiang Province's 14th Five-Year Plan, and an important component of Wenzhou's efforts to build a full-chain energy system of "nuclear, wind, solar, hydro, storage, hydrogen and battery storage." Once fully completed, the Zhejiang Yongjia Pumped Storage Power Station will mainly undertake tasks such as peak shaving, valley filling, energy storage, frequency regulation, phase modulation and emergency accident reserve for the Zhejiang power grid. It is expected to significantly save coal consumption in the system each year and substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide, which is of great significance for improving regional air quality, mitigating acid rain damage and promoting the green transformation of the energy structure.