The Three Gorges hydropower plant is expected to generate 48.6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity this year, 19.5 billion more than last year.

Cao Guangjing, deputy general manager of China Yangtze River Three Gorges Project Development Corporation, said the last three of the 14 power generating units to be installed on the northern bank of the Yangtze River would go into operation this year.

By late 2005, the Three Gorges Project, which is being built on the middle section of the Yangtze, will have its total installed generating capacity increase to 9.8 million kw.

Eleven generators have been operating at the Three Gorges hydropower plant since July 10, 2003, when the first generator started to produce electricity. The project generated 39.1 billion kw/hours of electricity last year, exceeding the state-set target.

Launched in 1993, the Three Gorges Project is designed to harness the Yangtze, China's longest river. The gigantic project is to be constructed in three stages. Preparations and construction in the first phase were carried out between 1993 and 1997. The Yangtze was dammed at the Three Gorges area for the first time on Nov. 8, 1997.

The Three Gorges Project, with an estimated cost of 180 billion yuan (approximately 21.7 billion US dollars), will have 26 generators with a combined generating capacity of 18.2 million kw and be able to generate 84.7 billion kw/hours of hydro-electric power annually when it is completed in 2009.

A revision of the original plan calls for the inclusion of a new underground power plant with six new 700,000-kw generators. The remaining 18 generating units of the Three Gorges Project will all be installed on the southern bank of the river.