Bailongjiang Dalijie Hydropower Station

Audit Analysis

A small Chinese run-of-river hydropower project under CDM with confirmed additionality and a jurisdictional grid baseline, but undermined by a 10× discrepancy in the lifetime emission reduction figure between the PDD and the monitoring report, a turbine model that changed after registration, and 14 material findings with 23 corrective actions. The project is physically plausible but the data reliability issues create meaningful uncertainty around the magnitude of claimed reductions.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠10× discrepancy in lifetime ERR: the PDD (2012) states 1,389,190 tCO₂ while the monitoring report (2016) states 138,919 tCO₂ — almost certainly a decimal error in one document, but it makes the over/under-crediting ratio ambiguous
• ⚠Turbine model changed from HL290-LJ-280 to HLA551C-LJ-272 and generator from SF13.4-36-470 to SF-J13.4-36/5100 after PDD registration, meaning the actual equipment differs from what was validated
• ⚠14 material findings and 23 corrective actions identified during validation, including missing GPS coordinates, IRR inconsistencies, missing flow diagram, and missing meter accuracy details in the monitoring plan
• ⚠Grid emission factor dated 2005 (0.8498 tCO₂/MWh) used for a project operating 2009–2019, raising the question of whether the baseline reflects current grid conditions

Credit Vintages