The State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC), the country's biggest power supplier, said Sunday that its 2008 net profit fell almost 80 percent year on year due to natural disasters and higher power prices.

Net profit was 9.66 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion), compared with 47.1 billion yuan in 2007.

Revenue rose 13.8 percent to 1.156 trillion yuan from a year earlier, the state-owned company noted.

The power distributor suffered more than 22 billion yuan (US$3.2 billion) of direct economic loss in the worst winter weather in at least 50 years in southern China and the May 12 earthquake.

China raised the on-grid power price by 0.017 yuan per kwh in June and 0.02 yuan kwh in August to around 0.3 yuan per kwh on average to offset rising costs in power plants. But retail household power prices were capped amid concerns of a higher inflation.

The company said it planned to invest 83 billion yuan (US$12 billion) in ultra-high voltage (UHV) power lines in 2009 and 2010 to make long-distance transmission more efficient.

China's power demand and installed power generating capacity would likely double to 7.4 trillion kwh and 1.47 billion kw respectively in 2020, it forecasted.

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2009)