Water control project to boost power grid stability in southern Xinjiang

A major water control project in southern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is set to begin reservoir impoundment by late September, marking a major milestone in China’s push to stabilize regional power supply and reshape the ecological and energy landscape of the Aksu Region.

The Dashixia Water Control Project is located at the confluence of Wensu and Wushi counties within the Kumarak River Grand Canyon of the Aksu Region. It is designed to integrate flood control, irrigation, power generation, and ecological management. 

Central to this project is a dam reaching 247 meters in height. With a total installed capacity of 750,000 kilowatts, the project will generate nearly 1.9 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, significantly contributing to the region's energy needs.

Beyond its power generation capabilities, the project is expected to yield numerous additional benefits.

"First is ecological restoration, second is irrigation upgrading, third is enhanced flood prevention, fourth is clean energy generation, and fifth is increased social employment," said Huang Jin, a manager with Xinjiang Gezhouba Dashixia Water Control Project Development Company.

During its construction, innovative technologies have been adopted to improve the efficiency, including an intelligent monitoring system.

"We have implemented intelligent management throughout the entire process, covering all stages, elements, dimensions, and the full lifecycle of construction. From the very beginning, we utilized BIM modeling, which serves as a comprehensive data pool capturing all the characteristics of this project," explained Wang Fengbin, deputy chief engineer with China Energy Engineering Gezhouba Group.

To protect local fish populations, the project has implemented fish conservation measures with a total investment of 65 million yuan (about 9.13 million U.S. dollars).

This year, 92,000 fry have been released into the Kumarak River to improve the aquatic ecosystem and enhance species diversity.

Water control project to boost power grid stability in southern Xinjiang

Indonesia issued offshore bonds denominated in Chinese yuan, or dim sum bonds, totaling 9.25 billion yuan (about 1.34 billion U.S. dollars) in February, marking its second issuance of the yuan-denominated bonds.

The country issued the RMB bonds for the first time last October, with a total value of 6 billion yuan (about 870 million U.S. dollars).

The bonds were issued with maturities of three, five and 10 years.

Analysts point out that the competitive yield of RMB bonds will help Indonesia further optimize its financing structure and reduce capital costs against the backdrop of high global interest rates and rising financing costs in U.S. dollars.

"At the current situation, the global economies start to change and the financial sector is already evolving, also, and the RMB now is in the internationalization phase. So we see this is an opportunity for the Indonesian government to diversify and further lower the cost of funding," said Fakhrul Fulvian, chief economist and head of fixed income research with Trimegah Sekuritas, a company engaged in the brokerage and underwriting of securities.

"That demonstrates the depth, liquidity and attractiveness of Hong Kong's dim sum bond market, even for tenure as long as 10 years," said Handojo Wibawanto Soetikno, marketing director of Jakarta Branch of the Bank of China.

Dim sum bonds are RMB-denominated bonds issued outside the Chinese mainland, mainly in Hong Kong.

Indonesia issues RMB-denominated bonds of 9.25 billion yuan