The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has established a paramilitary detachment for emergency power supply repairs during natural disasters or terrorist attacks.

In its first exercise on Tuesday, it practiced repairs on a power network of a PLA division headquarters that had been damaged by bombs.

It took 30 minutes for the squad to arrive at the site, 30 kilometers from their barracks, and they restored power to the headquarters in five minutes.

The 30-member detachment was based in northeast China's PLA Shenyang Area Military Command and 80 percent of its members were ex-soldiers, said Liu Wei, deputy head of the military area's mobilization department.

Liu said the squad was equipped with 52 generators, with capacities ranging from 100 to 1,600 kilowatts and a total capacity of 30,000 kilowatts per hour, enough to provide electricity for 60,000 people.

Since mid-January, low temperatures have caused chaos in many southern and eastern provinces, leaving 129 dead, 152 billion yuan (21.3 billion U.S. dollars) in property losses, and power blackouts in many areas.

Thousands of PLA personnel were dispatched for relief work, including the repairing of electricity pylons that collapsed under heavy snow and freezing rain.

(Xinhua News Agency February 28, 2008)