Safeguarding vital national infrastructure: WTAU’s equipment upgrade project at the Danjiangkou Water Control Project is progressing steadily.

Recently, the upgrade and renovation project for core equipment at the Danjiangkou Hydropower Plant—a collaboration between WTAU and Hanjiang Group—achieved significant interim results: the modification of two portal cranes and three hoist units has been fully completed, successfully passed inspection, and entered service, while work on the remaining eight hoist units is proceeding in an orderly manner according to the construction schedule.

The Danjiangkou Water Control Project, situated on the Hubei section of the Han River's main stem, is a pivotal undertaking for the river's development and management. As the core water source for the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, it fulfills multiple strategic functions, including flood control, water supply, power generation, and navigation. The two 500-ton gantry cranes and eleven hoist units installed on the dam crest—commissioned successively between 2007 and 2009—serve as the primary lifting equipment essential for dam operations, maintenance, equipment servicing, and flood control dispatching. After more than a decade of high-intensity operation, issues regarding the aging of electrical cabinets and automation components have become increasingly pronounced; frequent hardware failures and a rising number of defects indicate that the equipment has reached the end of its service life and requires replacement or retrofitting. Given the direct impact on the project's safe, stable operation and the security of flood control dispatching, an upgrade is urgently needed.

For this renovation project, WTAU was responsible for the complete replacement of electrical cabinets and automation components for two portal cranes and eleven hoist units, while also providing end-to-end services covering on-site installation and commissioning, operational training for maintenance personnel, and final technical acceptance. Given the project's requirement to maintain normal dam dispatch, flood control monitoring, and power generation operations throughout the construction period, the WTAU project team collaborated closely with the power plant's operations and maintenance department. Adhering to the principle of "renovate, accept, and commission one unit at a time," the team precisely scheduled construction windows for each piece of equipment and utilized scheduled downtime for staggered operations, thereby minimizing the impact on the hub's normal functioning.

During the installation process, the team strictly adhered to safety standards for hydraulic engineering operations. Addressing the core challenge of ensuring compatibility between the new and existing systems, they conducted multiple rounds of no-load and load testing for each piece of equipment and repeatedly calibrated control parameters to guarantee seamless integration with the hub's original control infrastructure. Following the installation and commissioning of the initial two portal cranes and three hoist units, the Weite team provided customized hands-on training for the power plant's operations and maintenance staff. They offered detailed explanations and demonstrations covering everything from system operational logic and routine inspection protocols to emergency troubleshooting, ensuring the staff fully mastered the skills required to operate and maintain the new equipment. Rigorous acceptance testing confirmed that the control precision, response speed, and operational stability of the newly commissioned equipment met all design specifications; this effectively resolved the frequent malfunctions caused by the aging of the original equipment and earned high praise from the power plant.