Lungjug Geothermal Power Station

Lungjug Geothermal Power Station, constructed with an investment from the State Development Bank, was the first of 62 aid-Tibet projects that passed the check before acceptance.

Lungjug is the region with the most active terrestrial heat in Tibet. The State began to develop geothermal energy resources here in 1983. In October 1987, Ngari residents were ecstatic when the installation and testing of the Lungjug Geothermal Power Station was accomplished and the station began to generate electricity. For the first time, bright electric light replaced the butter lamps used for many generations. Unfortunately, the station, which cost more than 40 million yuan, stopped working after 186 days of operation. In 1988, the State again invested 8.7 million yuan in further geological work, but failed to awake the sleeping geothermal land.

What were the reasons behind this failure? In 1993, the State decided to transform the power station. Departments concerned with the Tibet Autonomous Region and the Ngari Prefecture Geothermal Company were instructed to make another investigation of the project. They produced a total of six reports, which were submitted to a body of authority for feasibility studies. It was finally decided that the project would be listed among the 62 aid-Tibet projects, the State Development Bank would raise a fund of 6.6 million yuan for the project, and the Tibet Geothermal Development Company would undertake the transformation construction of the power station.

The construction began on July 10, 1994. The main task was to select applicable wells for a group wells ejection experiment on the former wells, which were in relatively good condition. Transformation and renovation was made of the former two 1,000 kw generation units. With the efforts of over 50 geothermal specialists and workers for more than three months, the Lungjug Geothermal Power Station recovered electricity generation on September 5 of the same year. After it was officially in operation for a month, the power station underwent checks by a group of experts organized by the Tibet Autonomous Region. The review board tested 33 items involved in the projects, listened to the reports from the construction units, looked up related data and examined the original records on the working of machines. They agreed that the construction unit, within a short period of time, had done a good job with 25 main items, including the transformation of the gas supply pipeline, installation of generation units and chemical flushing. Heat efficiency of the transformed power station rose to 2 liters from the original 1.5 liters, up 33 percent. The continuous output of the plant reached 350,000 kw per hour, reaching the goal of having output of 700-1,000 watts per unit. All indicators were up to the standards issued by the competent ministry.

The success of the project re-kindled the night pearl of Lungjug which had been out for six years. The renovated station has a capacity of generating 4 million kw a year. In addition to its own consumption, the station supplies Shiquanhe Town with 3 million kw, which greatly relieves the shortage of power for lighting and production. The economic benefits of this are obvious.

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