Lancang River Xiaowan Hydropower Station

A pivotal project for the middle and lower reaches of the Lancang River Basin, created for power generation, flood control, irrigation, tourism, environmental protection, compensation and regulation for downstream stations.

This project features the world’s first 300m-level arch dam with a crest length of 893m and a concrete volume of 8.52 million m3. The reservoir load exceeds 18 million tons, the slopes areas height reaches 700m and the maximum geostatic stress at dam site amounts to 50MPa, facing prominent earthquake-resistant challenges.

The above-mentioned issues result in tremendous difficulties in structural design and construction of the arch dam, making it one of the most challenging hydropower projects in the world.

Innovative resolutions were deployed to overcome the key technical challenges including ultra-high arch dam structure design, complicated foundation treatment, concrete temperature control, whole-process evaluation of working performance on a real-time basis, leading to development of a comprehensive technology system for 300m-level arch dam which could be used in subsequent projects.

Its experience has escalated arch dam engineering in the world onto a new stage and international institutions such as EDF-COD Consultation Unity from France, MWH from USA were introduced, and expert committees composed of academicians from CAE were formed, to carry out independent evaluation on significant technical issues.