The world’s first 12,000-kilowatt double-water-cooled steam turbine generator

The Shanghai Electric Machinery Factory used to be a small ironworks located under the Yangshupu Bridge, but it has a long history, dating back to the first year of the Xuantong era in the Qing dynasty (1909). It started as a small repair shop, with only 11 people in total, including the owner and workers. After several decades of development, it was renamed Shanghai Electric Factory No. 4 in 1945 and began producing electric motors, though the output remained minuscule. By 1949, the total annual output of electric motors was only 1,700 kilowatts. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949, a new chapter in history was opened. On December 1, Shanghai Electrician No. 4 Factory was expanded and reorganized into Shanghai Motor Factory, which produces small AC motors and transformers. In 1953, **the relevant authorities entrusted the task of developing a 6,000-kilowatt air-cooled steam turbine generator to the Shanghai Electric Machinery Factory. This task is honorable and extremely difficult. At that moment, Meng Qingyuan, the deputy factory director and chief engineer in charge of this task, remembered an old incident. Meng Qingyuan graduated from the Department of Electrical Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and in 1937 he began working at the Yangshupu Power Plant. At that time, this power plant founded by British investors had been sold to Americans. One day, the factory needed to install new turbine generators, and American experts were in charge of the installation. Eager to learn, Meng Qingyuan arrived at the site early in the morning and watched the installation process intently, asking questions from time to time. To their surprise, they were mocked by American experts: “What’s the use of asking these questions?” You Chinese will never be able to build steam turbine generators! Buy from us in the United States instead! ”Faced with this sudden humiliation, Meng Qingyuan calmly retorted, “Just wait and see!” ”

A single phrase, “Let’s see,” ignites passion in the heart. From then on, there was the story of Dr. Meng working hard to create China’s first 6,000-kilowatt generator. In 1943, Meng Qingyuan went to the University of Liverpool in the UK to pursue further studies. In June 1946, after obtaining his doctorate in electrical engineering, his supervisor wanted him to stay in the UK, but he was determined to return to his home country and commit himself to developing domestic turbo-generators for it. Now, at last, the opportunity to realize my ambitions has arrived. In 1953, the Shanghai Electric Machinery Factory, which had moved to Minhang, began trial production of generators. At that time, the factory building hadn’t even been built yet, but Meng Qingyuan eagerly led everyone to work day and night. They said, “This is the first domestically produced generator; nothing can go wrong!” ”It was with this rigorous attitude that Meng Qingyuan and his team carefully conducted tests at every step of the process of integrating the prototype generators with the exciters. On September 25, 1954, this domestically produced 6,000-kilowatt air-cooled steam turbine generator was successfully manufactured. In May 1956, this generator passed the **evaluation**, was installed at the power plant in Huainan City, Anhui Province, and came into official use. When hearing the announcer from China National Radio proudly announce that \"our country’s first 6,000-kilowatt air-cooled steam turbine generator has been successfully connected to the grid at the Huainan Power Plant,\" Meng Qingyuan could hold back his tears. From 1954 to the end of 1957, the Shanghai Electric Machinery Factory successfully produced 27 6,000-kilowatt air-cooled turbogenerators, and also developed prototype 12,000-kilowatt air-cooled turbogenerators, thereby providing strong support for the implementation of the **First Five-Year Plan. He made significant contributions**, but Meng Qingyuan did not take a break or relax; instead, he set his sights on new goals. As the demand for electricity in construction becomes increasingly urgent, new challenges arise. At that time, forged components such as the shafts and retaining rings of steam turbine generators still had to be imported. After much research, it was finally determined that developing a double-water internal-cooling steam turbine generator was the best approach. If successful, it will allow one imported forged part (shaft and retaining ring) to serve two purposes, and it will also lay the foundation for manufacturing large-capacity turbogenerators.

On July 10, 1958, the Shanghai Electric Machinery Factory began trial production of 12,000-kilowatt double-water internal-cooling steam turbine generators. Who will serve as the head of this prototype development team? Meng Qingyuan, the chief engineer in charge of overall operations, thought of his capable assistant Wang Geng and recommended him to the factory’s party committee. Speaking of Wang Geng, he graduated from the Department of Electrical Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1949, and he is a classmate of Meng Qingyuan. Soon, the factory’s Party committee officially appointed 30-year-old Wang Geng as the head of the trial production team. The prototype development team led by Wang Geng is a young team; its members are only Chen Tongji and Zhang Qinglie, with 16 interns from Zhejiang University and Xi’an Jiaotong University helping to create the design drawings. What they set out to challenge were cutting-edge technologies that no one in the world had yet managed to overcome at that time. Difficulties appeared right from the start. When designing a dual-water internal cooling rotor scheme, figuring out how to introduce water from the non-rotating parts into the rotating water inlet sealing structure proved problematic; several of the initial designs they came up with failed. Ultimately, they succeeded only by visiting and studying the Shanghai Water Pump Factory in person. At that time, there was no existing information available for the design of many components, so they pooled their ideas to find solutions. They brought in technical experts from various departments within the factory, sought their advice, and then incorporated those suggestions into different plans for testing. Some concepts are too abstract; although one understands the principles behind them, it is still impossible to translate them into design drawings. So, Wang Geng took his team members to the workshop to seek advice from the experienced workers. It can be said that this development and design process did not follow the conventional approach of \"first creating drawings and then building the actual product,\" but rather represented a bold attempt in which designers, workers, and managers worked together to overcome challenges. For this development, they worked day and night. It took 100 days from the launch of this project to its successful assembly. Wang Geng and his colleagues had hoarse throats, and their eyes were bloodshot from staying up late for long periods. But not a single person complained of fatigue; instead, they were extremely excited and proud. On October 27, 1958, the world’s first double-water-cooled steam turbine generator with a capacity of 12,000 kilowatts per minute and 3,000 revolutions per minute was finally produced at the Shanghai Electric Machinery Factory. After being reported in the People’s Daily, Workers’ Daily, and Shanghai’s Liberation Daily, this news not only boosted the morale of the people across the country but also shocked the world. It’s truly true that “there is nothing difficult in the world; with laughter and confidence, one can achieve success.” In 1985, the 300,000-kilowatt double-water-cooled steam turbine generator produced by Shanghai Electric Machinery Factory also passed the **acceptance test successfully.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Xin’anjiang Hydropower Station used domestically produced double-water-cooled steam turbine generators with a single-unit capacity of 72.5–125 MW.

Dual-water internal-cooling steam turbine generators used at the Xin’anjiang Hydropower Station

Since water has a much higher cooling effect than air and hydrogen, after the 1930s, Western developed countries with decades of experience in manufacturing steam turbine generators pursued numerous ideas and experiments related to internal water cooling in order to increase power generation. In 1956, the UK was the first to develop a stator single-water internal cooling steam turbine generator, but the development of a two-water internal cooling generator with better power generation performance remained an unexplored area. To meet the needs of development, Shanghai Electric Machinery Factory decided to skip hydrogen cooling and go straight to double-water internal cooling, determined to succeed in doing so. After its creation, this generator was installed at the Shanghai Nanshi Power Plant on December 4. It operated normally for 34 years before being removed in August 1993 due to its limited capacity. In December 1958, the International Conference on Generator Cooling Technology was held in Leningrad, the Soviet Union. At that conference, it was announced that dual-water internal cooling turbo-generators had been successfully developed at the Shanghai Electric Machinery Factory, which attracted great attention from the delegates present. A resolution was passed to include a report on these domestically developed dual-water internal cooling turbo-generators in the conference proceedings. On April 4, 1964, the **Science and Technology Committee determined that \"internal water cooling of rotor winding conductors\" opened up a new path for the invention and production of large-capacity generators. Its advantages are: good electrical conductivity, high heat capacity, low flow resistance, stable chemical properties, and non-flammability, making it suitable for use in motors. In 1985, the 3,000 revolutions per minute double-water-cooled steam turbine generator won the first prize in the **Science and Technology Progress Award**, and was ranked as the first among the 135 first-prize winners nationwide.

Shanghai has produced a lot of industrial equipment