(Yicai Global) June 16 -- The world's seventh-biggest hydropower station has been put into operation in southwestern China after more than five years of construction to bring greener electricity to eastern regions.

All the 12 units of the Wudongde project, China's fourth-largest hydropower station, are ready, CCTV News reported today. The total installed capacity is 10.2 million kilowatts.

The station is one of the key parts of China's West-East Electricity Transmission Project which aims to make use of western regions' high-altitude landscapes to generate more environmentally friendly energy to be delivered to the coastal megacities.

China Three Gorges began building the Wudongde project in December 2015. The first two units have been operational since last June.

The 12 units will be able to generate 38.9 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, equivalent to saving 12.2 million tons of coal and reducing 30.5 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

The station is also a key part of the Yangtze River's flood control system. The dam, which is a tall as a 96-story building, can store as much as 7.4 billion cubic meters of water, or nearly 520 times the water volume of Hangzhou's renowned tourist attraction West Lake.

Wudongde has so far generated 24.1 billion kWh of electricity, which equals eight months of power usage in southwestern Yunnan province's capital city of Kunming.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi