A west-east electricity transmission line from Ili, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, to Lanzhou, capital city of Gansu Province, is now under construction.

According to Liu Zhenya, general manager of State Grid Corporation of China, the State Grid and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will jointly construct a 750kv electricity transmission line over the next five years. The project will connect thermal power stations in Xinjiang with the northwest power grid. This will form the north route of the west-east electricity transmission project.

Located on the old Silk Road, the project begins with a 750kv transmission and transformation program from Hami to Yongdeng which includes two 750kv transformer substations in Jiayuguan and Zhangye -- both of them are in Gansu Province. The transmission capacity is 3 million kv. In 2010 the Hami-Jingzhou (in Hubei Province) 800kv-direct-current-transmission project will get under construction. Its transmission capacity will reach 6 million kv.

Most of China's energy resources are distributed in the western and northern regions while the consuming markets are concentrated in the south and east. Transforming the regular energy into power transmission is therefore an important means to optimize the distribution of resources.

Wang Yongming, director of the Xinjiang regional economy and trade commission, said that about 5-billion-kwh electricity would be transmitted to southeast regions five years later.

Since 2004, with the support of state policy and capital, exploration for coal and the construction of coal-power stations in Xinjiang has seen rapid development. More than 10 large coal enterprises including Shenhua and Luneng have already invested in Xinjiang with further investment expected to reach hundreds of million of yuan.

(China.org.cn by Li Shen June 30, 2006)