The debugging of China's Qinghai-Tibet grid interconnection project was finished Wednesday and the grid will begin a trial phase on October 31, said an official with the debugging company.

The grid was reported be qualified to be used on a trial basis after the debugging work, said Qiu Zhitao, an official with Hubei Electric Power Transmission Distribution Engineering Company, which runs the debugging project.

The project, which set up 900 kilometers of power lines in an area with an average altitude of 4,000 meters, is expected to be put into operation on November 15 after a 15-day trial, said Yu Le, Chief engineer from DC Construction Branch of China's State Grid Corporation.

The entire project, with a total investment of 16.2 billion yuan (2.54 billion U.S. dollars), consists of three phases: a 750 KV transmission line from Xining, capital of Qinghai, to Golmud in the center of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau; a 400 KV transmission line from Golmud to Lhasa, capital of Tibet autonomous region; 220 KV of grid facilities within Tibet.

As one of the 23 key projects of the Western Development Strategy launched in 2010, the Qinghai-Tibet grid interconnection project aims to ease the power shortage in Tibet and optimize Qinghai province's energy distribution.

According to statistics from the Tibet branch of the State Grid, the region's annual power consumption is 1.6 billion kilowatt hours and mostly relies on hydroelectric power sources. The grid is expected to provide 4 billion kilowatt hours to the region annually to ensure an ample energy supply for people's daily lives and industries.

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