The 700,000-kilowatt No. 22 turbine began producing electricity at 9:12 a.m. The electricity is transmitted through the state power grid to energy-strained eastern cities such as Shanghai.

An electronic monitoring screen showed the turbine was operating normally with output of 650,000 kwh.

The 14 turbines on the left bank of the Gorges began operation in September 2005. The very first turbine started producing electricity almost four years ago, in July 2003.
On Monday, the water level was around 145 meters in the Three Gorges reservoir and downstream it was about 65 meters.

The No. 22 turbine is the first of the 12 turbines on the right bank of the gigantic Three Gorges project to be put into use.

The No. 22 turbine will generate revenue of 3.9 million yuan (510,000 U.S. dollars) each day if it maintains output of 650,000 kwh, according to experts.

Another turbine, numbered 26, on the right bank, is undergoing a final pre-operation checkup.

The installation of the 12 turbines on the right bank — eight domestically made ones and four imported turbines — began last June and is expected to be completed next year.

A total of four turbines on the right bank are expected to start operation this year. All 12 turbines will be producing electricity at the end of 2008.

The hydroelectric project plans to produce 370 billion kwh of electricity in the 2006-2010 period, according to Cao Guangjing, deputy general manager of China Three Gorges Corporation. The electricity will be transmitted to power grids in central, eastern and southern China.

The 22.5-billion-U.S.-dollar project was launched in 1993. Its 26 turbo-generators are designed to produce 85 billion kwh of electricity a year after completion in 2008.

The dam, 2,309 meters long and 185 meters high, was completed in May last year and the water level in the reservoir was raised to 156 meters from 135 meters in October. The dam had been designed to help minimize damage caused by floods that might occur only once every 1,000 years.

The project has produced 165 billion kwh of electricity since 2003.

Work has also begun on the installation of six more underground turbines, which are expected to start operation in 2010.
So far the project has necessitated the resettlement of 1.2 million people.