China General Nuclear Power has launched trial operations of the second Hualong One nuclear power unit at the Taipingling NPP in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, about two and a half months after unit 1 began operation.
Unit 2 of the Taipingling nuclear power plant in Huizhou was connected to the grid on 4 July, and it has maintained sound operating conditions since then, with all technical indicators meeting design expectations, CGN said. After completing performance tests, the unit is expected to enter formal commercial operation later this year.
Once fully operational, Unit 2 is expected to generate over nine billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, meeting the production and daily use power demand of nearly one million residents and further strengthening CGN’s capacity to supply clean energy to the Greater Bay Area, said Zhang Guoqiang, Chairman of CGN Huizhou Nuclear Power, the CGN subsidiary responsible for the project.
CGN broke ground at the Taipingling plant in December 2019. With a total investment of over CNY120bn ($17.7bn), the project will have six Hualong One nuclear power units with an installed capacity of 1,209 MWe each.
Upon completion, the plant is expected to produce more than 55 TWh of electricity a year, cutting standard coal consumption by around 16.65m tonnes and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 50.8m tonnes a year.
Taipingling 1 began trial operations in February and was officially connected to the grid and put into commercial service in April. Construction of unit 3 started on 10 June 2025, with initial grid connection scheduled for the end of 2027. First concrete for the nuclear island of unit 4 was poured in May.
