The Yalong River, originated from the southern foot of the Bayankala Mountains in Qinghai Province, stretching from northwest to southeast, runs through the western part of Sichuan Province, and joins the Jinsha River in Panzhihua. The main stream of the Yalong is 1,571km, which covers a catchment area of 136,000km2 creates a natural drop of 3,830m, and gives an annual runoff of 60.2 billion cubic meters. In terms of hydro-energy potentials, the river has a technically developable capacity of 34.62GW, which represents an annual power generation of 184.036TWh. Out of which, the main stream of the river has a hydropower reserve of 33.40GW, and technically developable capacity of 29.188GW representing an annual power generation of 151.636TWh, which accounts for roughly 24% and 5% of the total generation of Sichuan Province and the whole country respectively. Twenty-one cascade schemes have been planned along the main stream of the Yalong, which have a total capacity of 29.17GW and put the river in the fourth place in terms of installed capacity among China¡¯s 13 hydropower bases. Among these projects, Lianghekou, Jiping-I and Ertan are the controlling reservoirs, which add up to a total regulation capacity of 15.8 billion cubic meters. Characterized by plentiful precipitation, concentrated natural drops, and small inundation losses, the Yalong Valley has favorable conditions for hydropower development.