Environmental Criteria for Hydropower in the Mekong Region - WWF

The Current Status of Environmental Criteria for Hydropower Development in the Mekong Region: A litterature compilation
Entry points for environment criteria relevant to the portfolio of proposed and pipeline
hydropower projects in Myanmar are broadly similar to those in other GMS countries.
If environmental impact assessment (EIA) legislation proceeds, then one possible
avenue could be as a regulation attached to the EIA Law. One additional point of
emphasis may also be environment criteria for upgrading and refurbishment of
existing hydropower operations.
1.6 PRC – Yunnan Province 8
Important features of the power sector in Yunnan Province are its large unexploited
coal and hydropower resources that far exceed domestic power supply requirements,
high growth in domestic electricity demand (above 10% p.a.), low tariff rates, and
major opportunities to sell electricity into the power markets forming in the other
GMS countries, and to north-east power markets in mainland PRC.
Yunnan has a theoretical potential of about 90,000 MW of hydropower in its 6 major
river basin systems, the Dulong (Irrawaddy), Nu (Salween), Lancang (Mekong),
Jinsha (Yangtze), Zhu (Pearl), and the Yuan and Lixian, which are both tributaries of
the Red River that flows into northern Viet Nam past Hanoi. Overall, Yunnan has
about a quarter of the PRC’s total hydropower potential and coal resources. The
population of about 43 million people is about half the population of Viet Nam, and
well under 4% of PRC’s total population. Hydropower resources are concentrated in
western areas, with thermal resources in the eastern and northeast.
The plateau in Tibet (Qinghai Province) where the Lancang River rises and the
remote mountainous terrain in Yunnan through which it flows provide only 16% of
the total discharge of the Mekong system. Because of the high river gradient, deep
gorges and favourable geology about 23,000 MW, or half the estimated hydropower
potential of the Mekong basin is on the Lancang River.
Yunnan has already built two dams on the main-stem of the Lancang—Manwan
(1,500 MW) and Mengsong (600 MW)—and has two more under construction,
Xiaowan (4,200 MW) and Dachaoshan (1,350 MW). These are part of a planned
cascade of 8 dams. It is projected that 15,600 MW with a combined active storage of
23,200 mcm will be constructed by 2025. The scoping stage hydropower inventory
suggests at least another 10 sites for large hydropower facilities have been studied on
the Lancang, and another 24 sites have been identified and studied to various levels
on the Nu and Jinsha river systems. Installed capacity in Yunnan was about 3,000
MW (in 2003), but is expected to rise above 7,000 MW by 2010. Presently
hydropower accounts for 68% of Yunnan’s power generation and coal the balance.
8 Guangxi Province to be added in Phase II.
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