The Ertan Dam is a large concrete arch-gravity dam on the Yalong River, a tributary of the Yangtze River in Sichuan Province, southwest China.

The dam has six hydroelectric generators, each with a generating capacity of 550 MW. The total generating capacity of the facility is 3,300 MW, one of the largest hydroelectric stations in China. The annual production is 17 TWh, and until December 5th 2006, it has produced over 100 TWh of electricity. Construction of the dam started on September 1991 and was completed on December 26, 1999.

Ertan was China's first hydropower plant to be built through international bidding. Canada's General Electric Co (GE) won the contract for the manufacture of the six generating units. The contract called for GE to manufacture the first two 582MW Francis turbines in Canada, while the third and fourth would be a joint project of GE and Harbin Electrical Machinery Works in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and the Shanghai-based Dongfang Electrical Machinery Works. The fifth and sixth would then be produced by the Chinese firms alone. Dongfang in particular is an important partner for GE. In September 1999, Ertan unit five, the first Chinese domestic-made 550MW hydropower generator, went into formal operation. The previous largest hydro turbine built in China was 320MW. Dongfang and Harbin have also formed a joint venture company with Austria's VA Technologie for domestic hydro turbine production.

Ertan Dam
Coordinates
Impounds	Yalong River
Locale	Sichuan, China
Construction began	September 1991
Opening date	26 December 1999
Power generation information
Turbines	6 × 550MW
Installed capacity	3,300 MW
Annual generation	17 TWh