Jintan District, Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, east China - Sept 12, 2026 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Aerial shots of salt cavern compressed air energy storage power station
2. Various of equipments, engineers inspecting
3. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Zhang Xianling, general manager, Huaneng Jintan Corporation:
"The successful full-unit startup of the two main units is another major milestone after pipeline laying and electrical installation. It is like opening up the heart and blood vessels of the entire system. The core equipment of both units is 100 percent domestically produced."
4. Various of equipments, engineers inspecting
5. Various of salt cavern compressed air energy storage power station, pipelines, equipment

Two generator units of the world's largest salt cavern compressed air energy storage power station in Changzhou City of east China's Jiangsu Province began operation on Saturday, marking a major breakthrough in core technologies and system integration for the sector.

Dubbed a "super power bank," the facility stores and generates electric power by charging and discharging high-pressure air at over 130 atmospheres from salt caverns 1,000 meters underground. Once completed, the station can cycle roughly 330 times a year with a single-cycle storage capacity of 2.8 million kilowatt-hours (kWh).

The two units now operating as a full set each have a capacity of 350 megawatts, giving the project the largest total installed capacity of its kind in the world. During the startup, key indicators including vibration, temperature, and pressure all outperformed design values, demonstrating that China has mastered the full chain of technologies in large-scale compressed air energy storage.

"The successful full-set startup of the two main units is another major milestone after pipeline laying and electrical installation. It is like opening up the heart and blood vessels of the entire system. The core equipment of both units is 100 percent domestically produced," said Zhang Xianling, general manager of Huaneng Jintan, a sub company of China's power giant Huaneng that is in charge of the project.

When the project becomes fully operational, it will support grid peak shaving and supply, while significantly boosting the absorption of renewable energy such as wind and solar power.