The Three Gorges Dam which is located in YiChang of China is the biggest hydropower project all over the world

Introduction

The Three Gorges Dam which is located in YiChang of China is the biggest hydropower project all over the world and the whole project costs 16 years from Dec. 14th 1994 to 2009. There are two important parts, the main building works and diversion projects, included in the project. The investment of the project is 248.537 billion Yuan in total: dam Project costs 126.385 billion Yuan, power transmission project spends 36.499 billion Yuan, and the amount of resettlement funds is 85.653 billion Yuan.

Why this project was selected for review

So far, as the biggest hydroelectric project, this project costs a huge number of money, time as well as numerous human and material resources, at the same time, it creates world record in many ways. The project needs not only very strict requirements in technical aspect, but also the harsh demanding in project management. So this project meets the requirements of the course, which will help us understand senior project management intuitively and deeply by studying this case. 

Brief explanation of project objectives, proposed scope and key stakeholders;

1：project objectives：

(1) The benefit of Flood control

Three Gorges Dam’s primary objective is to reduce the losses and damage by controlling the frequent and hazardous floods of Yangtze River 

(2) The capacity of electric power generation

The dam’s secondary benefits are producing cheap and clean electric power which is equivalent with 15 nuclear plants. 

(3) The benefit of shipping

The Gorges Dam project that has improved more than 600 km navigation mileages and increased the shipping capacity will accelerates the waterborne traffic and lower cost.

 (4)The function of drought resisting

Three Gorges Dam of the huge storage can effectively ease the drought situation by adjusting the water release.

2：Proposed scope:

This project will form a huge reservoir which is 600 km long. The length of the dam crest is 3035 meters; the height of the dam is 185 meters. The ordinary water level is 175 meters with water storage of 39.3 billion cubic meters, of which flood control storage capacity is 22.15 billion cubic meters.

3：key stakeholders:

China Three Gorges Corporation which is the legal entity for Three Gorges Dam Project is in the charge of the State Council. Its responsibilities include the financing, constructing, operating and balancing the economy benefits and the environment protection.

The Three Gorges Dam Project led to the biggest immigrant throughout our country history. Immigrants who lose their land and home were placed separately to 11 provinces from the reservoir region according to the principle of local settlement and relocated settlement.

Outline of key success criteria and deliverables

1. The criteria of flood control

Flood always causes more terrible impact in this region than others owing to its rich agricultural land and prosperous cities. There are some criteria for flood control of the dam. First, the flood control standard of this project should be upgraded to a level of preventing 100-year floods. With such flood coming, the dam can regular the flow which will not exceed 56700 cubic meters every second. Secondly, The Three Gorges project need to reduce the sediment by the scour of flood into the Dongting lake. Not only can we effectively mitigate the threat to Dongting lake, but also extend the life of the Dongting lake. Thirdly, it should strengths the flexibility and reliability of control flood to avoid terrible losses such as the destroy to Wuhan, the terminal of Jinghan trunk railways, and the damage to people and their property

2. The criteria of electric power generation

The project has been predicted that 26 turbine-generator units can generate electricity in 2003.From then on, they can put 2.8 million KW every year. The dam should be able to product the energy for central and east of China to satisfy their need of reducing cost and accelerating the development of economy. What’s more, this benefit should gives impetus to replace the thermal power which used to be dominated in China by this kind of clean and green energy which can reduce large amounts of carbon dioxide and more than 2 million tons’ harmful gas emissions a year.

3 The criteria of navigation

The significant criteria of navigation is accelerating the prosperity of waterborne traffic and lowering cost. For one hand, By the Three Gorges reservoir’s regulation, in dry season, the water release can get 5860 cubic meters per second which is larger than the amount of natural circumstances that ensure the ton fleet from Chongqing to Shanghai easily. For another hand, the completion of the dam will promote the standardization and aggregation of ship form because of the Yangtze River’s channel and water conditions improved. Shipping fuel consumption decrease to7.66 kg/km from 26 kg/km, and transportation cost lower 25% ~ 35% percent.