An Overview of Large-Scale Small Hydropower in Yunnan Power Grid: Situations, Challenges, and Measures

As one of the most important renewable resources, small hydropower is also an emphasized project of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which has been greatly developed and of great importance to alleviate the energy crisis resulting from the rapid economic growth of China in the past few decades. The impact on power grid is more and more obvious as most small hydropower plants operate on a river run-off system and generation output variation is very large between wet period and dry period. In the meanwhile, the operation and management of small hydropower in China have many outstanding problems due to the history and other reasons. Taking Yunnan power grid as the background, in this paper attempt has been made to explain the influence on safety and stability of power grid after large-scale small hydropower in operation. First, detailed description of the situation of small hydropower in Yunnan power grid. Second, combined with the actual circumstances, analysis of the problems and challenges that the power grid faces is presented. Finally the corresponding solution measures are put forward.