Spotlight |
Working towards a common goal
Detailed reports and notes complied over a 20-year period have been used to give an insight into the virtues of collaboration when working on the 245m high, 3300MW Ertan Dam in China. Here, Stephen O. Simmons from Kiawah Consulting Group reflects on his time working at Harza Engineering Company from 1968-1979, where Dr Chang-Hua Yeh was Chief Structural Engineer from 1997-2004
THIS STORY IS ABOUT a 20-year journey taken by the Harza Engineering Company, a global leader in the period 1920 to 2000 in the development of river projects – a byline on the letterhead being used when I joined the firm in 1968 and where I worked until 1979. While Harza Engineering Company is the focal point as the entity that led the effort in bringing large-scale hydroelectric power development to China, it is also about a multinational team working collaboratively towards a common goal of creating a project that would generate 3300MW upon its completion.
Hydro development in China The Ertan project on the Yalong River in Sichuan Province
Right: Aerial view of Ertan Dam on the Yalong River in China
of the People’s Republic of China, was conceived as a potential source of clean renewable energy at a grander scale than previously developed hydroelectric projects in the region. At the time, China had embarked on several significant hydropower installations with projects up to 178m in height and the largest generator units of 300MW. In the final project configuration, the Ertan project included a 245m high double curvature arch dam, three unique spillway configurations, and an underground powerhouse housing 6x550MW generating units. The starting point for work in China dates to the late 1970s when many internationally recognised design firms in the west were interested in the exceptionally large hydroelectric market in China. Oddly enough it was the first time anyone had heard of the Ertan project at Harza, so what followed was a bit of a surprise. Harza put together an all-star team that I had previously worked with during my eleven years at Harza, most notably on the Bath County pumped storage project. First, Roman Wengler, who advanced the science of the double curvature thin arch dam (see article in IWP&DC, November 2022), and Arvid Zagars, with the world’s most significant expertise in powerhouse design, met with design engineers at the Chengdu Hydroelectric Investigation and Design Institute (CHIDI) and then went to the site of the proposed Ertan Dam. After this trip, Harza put together a proposal to begin the development of the project based on a preliminary concept of a thin double curvature arch dam, along with an underground powerhouse – a departure from what was initially envisioned as a gravity arch dam and powerhouse at that toe of the dam by Harza’s Chinese counterparts. Patience became a virtue, as Harza did not hear back from colleagues in China for six more years.
Team building An agreement was signed between the US and
10 | February 2025 |
www.waterpowermagazine.com
China in 1979 for cooperation in the development of hydropower, with engineers from both countries’ government and private sectors to visit one another. China had done its homework by looking to the engineering and geological sciences expertise available in the US for what was to become major investments in
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