A state-of-the-art review of China's hydropower operations and the recent advances in the era of gigawatts

The Three Gorges and West-East Electricity Transfer Projects have brought an unprecedented hydropower boom in China and the world. China's cumulative installed hydropower capacity has been over 100 GW, 200 GW and 300 GW in just 20 years. By the end of 2017, the installed hydropower capacity in China has reached 341 GW, which is more than three times of installed hydropower capacity in the United States, the second largest in the world, and equivalent to the combined installed hydropower capacity of the world's next five major hydropower countries. In the process of rapid development of hydropower in China, it is also the period of speedy development of the entire China's electricity system. By hydropower interconnection, the installed capacity of single regional power grid is more than 100 GW, which is higher than the United States and Brazil, which rank second and third in the world. Two provincial power grids have been built with more than 70 GW and 60 GW of installed hydropower capacity, respectively, ahead of fifth-placed Japan and following the fourth-placed Canada. The unprecedented scale and developing speed of hydropower system in China has greatly changed the existing scheduling management methods at home and abroad, posing a major challenge to the traditional scheduling methods of hydropower system, and a new scheduling method is needed. This paper gives an overview of the development history of hydro-power in China, concludes the new changes in hydropower systems and three facing major problems, reviews the theoretical and methodological progress of hydropower in China in the last decade and points out that China's hydropower research under transformation of energy structure needs to be carried out in the future. © 2019, China Water Power Press. All right reserved.