China's major regional power grids have been joined to increase
the country's electricity transmission capabilities in a bid to
tackle rising power consumption levels, particularly during this
very hot summer season.
In Shenzhen, for example, rising power consumption levels have
almost stretched the limits of city's grid, with power loading
hitting a record high of 7.3 million kilowatts on
Wednesday.
Four power consumption records have been set since July and
officials with the power supply bureau said that Shenzhen's grid
load might be stretched to 7.9 million kilowatts.
The State Grid Corporation of China (SG), the
nation's largest power grid builder, recently completed major power
transmission projects linking the northwest and central China
grids, a significant step in connecting the six provincial grids
managed by SG and China Southern Grid (CSG).
The linkage between the five regional power grids in northeast,
north, east, south and central China were completed earlier, but
the northwestern grid previously operated alone, according to SG
sources.
The newly completed projects include a converter station based
in Henan
Province linking the northwest and central China grids, as well
as an upgrade to the existing Gezhouba-Nanqiao 500-kilovolt line
that transmits electricity from Sichuan
to Shanghai.
Both projects, put into operation in the first half of the year,
have an electricity transmission capacity of 6.56 million kilowatts
with a total length of 3,826 kilometers, said SG.
"It (the completion of the two transmission projects) plays an
important role in adjusting power supplies between different
regional power grids, which can transmit power from the
areas that have relatively rich resources to those that suffer
from acute shortages, optimizing the use of existing power
transmission resources," said SG in a statement.
The completion of the projects is of important significance in
relation to the country's long-term goal to use its own resources
to build large-scale direct-current transmission lines, and will
help satisfy the country's surging demand for power, SG sources
said.
(China Daily, Shenzhen Daily July 14,
2005)