China's pilot high-voltage electricity transmission project was
put into operation by the country's largest grid builder, the State
Grid Corp of China (SGCC),
yesterday in western China to meet surging demand for power across
the country.
The 750-kilovolt line, linking Guanting in Qinghai
Province to the northwest with Lanzhou in Gansu
Province to the southwest, is one of the world's
highest-voltage transmission projects built at the highest
altitude, SGCC said.
The project includes a 140-kilometer transmission line with two
substations at each end in western China, and involves a total
investment of some 1.09 billion yuan (US$134 million).
More than 90 percent of the project's equipment and technology
were provided by domestic manufacturers including the
Xinjiang-based Tebian Electric Apparatus. This is according to an
SGCC official who asked to remain anonymous. The official spoke
with China Daily yesterday on the sidelines of the launch
ceremony in Beijing.
Information on foreign participation in the project was not
available from the grid company.
"The successful operation of the high-voltage transmission line
means that China has become one of the world's leading
state-of-the-art equipment and technology providers in electricity
transmission and distribution, as well as in grid construction,"
Vice Premier Zeng
Peiyan said at the ceremony.
The booming economy of the world's second-largest energy
consumer has pushed the country's power generation expansion by a
double-digit rate in the past three years, which makes it
imperative to further scale up the transmission and distribution
network.
Statistics from the country's top economic policy planning body,
the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), show that an additional
generating capacity of 76 GW (gigawatts) will be added to the
existing 440 GW across the nation this year, representing a 17
percent rise from last year.
The country has set an ambitious target to more than double its
installed generation capacity to approximately 1,000 GW by 2020 to
fuel its ballooning economic growth.
At the same time, similar high-voltage lines will be further
expanded to enhance the transmission network, capable of
transmitting 25 percent of the nation's total electricity
generation capacity within the next 15 years.
SGCC sources said the company plans to massively extend its
750-kilovolt lines in the west to up to 4,730 kilometers by
2010.
Also part of the country's long-term blueprint, the intensified
network of high-voltage transmission lines from the resource-rich
western region to more economically-developed but energy-hungry
eastern areas will also help balance the country's energy
demand.
Coal resources in the northwestern region, for example, make up
almost half of the country's total reserves, and the high-voltage
lines are conducive to transmitting the coal-generated electricity
to the power-guzzling east.
(China Daily September 27, 2005)