Baishan Dam

The Baishan Dam (, meaning: "White Mountain Dam") is an arch-gravity dam on the Second Songhua River near the town of Baishanzhen, Huadian, Jilin Province, China. The purpose of the dam is hydroelectric power generation and flood control. The dam supplies water to five turbine-generators in two different powerhouses for an installed capacity of 1500 MW while it can also control a design 19100 m3/s flood. Additionally, it has a 300 MW pumped-storage hydroelectric generation capacity. It is named after Baekdu Mountain (White Mountain), near the city of Baishan.

Construction
Construction on the dam began in May 1975, the reservoir began to fill on September 16, 1982 and by the end of 1984, the first phase of three generators was operational. Another two generators in the project's second phase were operational by 1992. The dam submerged an area of 17.67 km2, displacing about 10,300 people.

In March 2000, a feasibility study report on a pumped-storage capability for the dam was approved. In August 2002, construction started on installing two 150 MW reversible pump generators and by July 2006, they were operational.

Design
The Baishan Dam is a 149.5 m tall and 677.5 m long arch gravity dam composed of 1663000 m3 of concrete. It withholds a 6500000000 m3 reservoir of which 3540000000 m3 is active or "useful" storage and 950000000 m3 is flood storage. The dam's spillway contains four 12 x openings and three 6 x mid-level openings on its orifice. All the dam's openings can discharge a design of 19100 m3/s, check standard of 26200 m3/s and maximum of 32200 m3/s of water.

The dam powers three separate power stations. The first station to be constructed is located underground and contains 3 x 300 MW Francis turbine generators while the second, located on the left bank slightly downstream contains 2 x 300 MW Francis turbine generators. The third portion of the dam's power station is 2 x 150 MW pump-generators. The dam's current reservoir serves as the upper and the Hongshi Dam's reservoir downstream serves as the lower.