First China nuclear power project with private investment connected to grid

The No. 1 generation unit of China's first nuclear power project with minority private capital investment in the eastern province of Zhejiang was connected to the power grid on Thursday.

The China General Nuclear (CGN) Zhejiang San'ao project is the first nuclear power project in China to incorporate private investment. An investment arm of Geely Technology Group has a 2 percent stake in the first phase of the plant, which comprises the No. 1 and 2 generation units.

Private capital investment in the second phase of the project, which includes another two units, has been increased to 10 percent as the country encourages more private investment in the nuclear power sector.

Following the grid connection, the generation unit will start on-load trial operation and conduct power output increase and various performance tests before official commercial operation.

The power station, located in Cangnan County in the city of Wenzhou, is designed to have six units of Hualong One, a domestically developed third-generation reactor. Three units have either already been built or are currently under construction.

After all six units are operational, the project will be capable of supplying over 54 billion kWh of clean electricity annually to Zhejiang Province and other regions in the Yangtze River Delta.

When fully operational, the project will be able to meet the annual electricity demand for production and daily life of about 5.4 million people and help reduce annual coal consumption by more than 16 million tonnes and carbon dioxide emissions by 50 million tonnes, said Tang Lyu of State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power Co., Ltd.

Currently, Zhejiang has over 100 gigawatts of installed clean energy power generation capacity, including over 10 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity, said the State Grid subsidiary.