On October 13, the Ye'ertan Hydropower Station of Huadian Jinsha River Upstream Hydropower Development Co., Ltd. — a major project under China's 14th Five-Year Plan and the highest-altitude concrete double-curvature arch dam hydropower station under construction in China — successfully closed its gates for water storage, officially entering the preparatory stage for commissioning and power generation of its first batch of units.

　　The Ye'ertan Hydropower Station is located on the main stream of the Jinsha River at the border between Baiyu County in Sichuan Province and Gongjue County in the Tibet Autonomous Region, and is an important component of the clean energy base in the upper reaches of the Jinsha River, a key project of the 14th Five-Year Plan. The station sits at an average altitude of 3,000 meters, with a total installed capacity of 2.24 million kilowatts and a total reservoir capacity of 1.08 billion cubic meters. Its 217-meter-high dam under construction is the highest-altitude concrete double-curvature arch dam currently being built in China. Concrete pouring for the dam began in August 2022, the first batch of dam sections reached full height in September 2025, and the first batch of units is scheduled to be commissioned for power generation by the end of 2025.

　　Du Xiaofan, Director of the Engineering Management Department of the Huadian Jinsha River Upstream Ye'ertan Branch, explained: "Water storage at the hydropower station will be carried out in two stages. In the first stage, the water level will be raised to the dead water level of 2,855 meters, creating conditions for commissioning the first batch of units for power generation by the end of the year. The second stage is the initial operation period; by October next year, the water level is expected to be raised to the normal storage level of 2,889 meters, at which point the joint dispatch and operation capacity of the cascade hydropower stations on the upper reaches of the Jinsha River can be brought into fuller play."

　　Once operational, the hydropower station will generate an average annual power output of more than 10.2 billion kilowatt-hours, equivalent to saving nearly 4 million tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 7.37 million tons each year. The clean electricity generated will be transmitted to Central China via the world's highest-altitude ultra-high-voltage direct current transmission project — the Jinsha River Upstream to Hubei ±800 kV UHVDC transmission project — which is of great significance for optimizing China's energy structure and promoting economic and social development in the Sichuan-Tibet region.