Work on a direct current converter station started on Saturday in Gaoling town of Huludao City in northeast China's Liaoning Province to serve to the aim of ensuring power supply in Beijing during the Olympic Games in 2008.

With a budget of 2.23 billion yuan (about US$279 million), the station will have four changers with a combined converting capacity of 3 million kw, the biggest of the kind in the world, according to Zheng Baosen, deputy general manager of the State Power Grid Corp.

The four changers will play a role in avoiding risks and hidden dangers once the power grids operate abnormally.

Liu Guoqiang, deputy governor of Liaoning, said the new station was one of the infrastructure designed to rejuvenate the rust belt in northeast China and would produce an active and profound influence on economic and social development in Liaoning.

According to Zheng, the first phase construction of the station will be finished in 2008. By then, the station will have gained a converting capacity of 1.5 million kw.

(Xinhua News Agency December 25, 2006)