China's 637-Meter Pumped Storage Power Station Shaft Reaches Full Depth

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Date: 2026-05-19

The No. 2 shaft of the Songyang Pumped Storage Power Station in Zhejiang Province was completed on May 2. This means that the power station, a crucial project in China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), has now completed both of its shafts, as the No. 1 shaft was finished at the end of 2025.

The power station has an upper reservoir, a lower reservoir, a water conveyance system, an underground facility, and a switchyard above the ground. Its water conveyance system has two single-stage vertical shafts that both reach a depth of 637 meters – equal in height to a skyscraper of more than 200 stories.

Adverse geological conditions, such as ultra-deep strata, faults, water seepage and ultra-hard rock, bring challenges to conventional drilling and blasting techniques, as they are neither efficient nor safe.

Because of this, China Three Gorges Corporation adopted intelligent equipment that is specially designed to excavate an ultra-deep shaft. The core device of the equipment, "Tiangong", is a 480-ton, full-section shaft boring machine. 

It can be adaptive to complicated rock strata and can perform a variety of tasks, including excavation, water supply, electrical control, laser guidance, fire protection and connection to a 5G communication network. With the help of the machine, 278.28 meters were bored in the No. 2 shaft in a single month, setting an industry record. 

A "smart elevator" that can rise up to 700 meters is employed to work with the shaft boring machine. It can efficiently and safely transport personnel and materials as heavy as 60 metric tons.

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By China Three Gorges Corporation

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