South China's Guangdong Province has planned to build another nuclear power plant in its Shaoguan City in response to the province's power shortage.

 

China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Co, Ltd. signed a cooperation agreement on the power plant project on Wednesday afternoon with the municipal government of Shaoguan, which is located in north Guangdong.

 

The project, the power generating capacity of which is unknown so far, will cost 100 billion yuan (US$12.5 billion) with an estimated production value of 10 billion yuan (US$1.25 billion), said Xu Jianhua, mayor of Shaoguan.

 

Encouraged by the Central Government, Guangdong plans to expand its nuclear power plants from the coastal region to the freshwater port in its northern part.

 

The two nuclear power plants at Daya Bay and Ling'ao in Guangdong generated a total power of 203.45 billion kw/hours by January this year.

 

Of the total, 156.4 billion kwh electricity was generated by the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant, with 106.16 billion kwh sold to neighbouring Hong Kong.

 

China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Co. Ltd., founded in September 1994 at a cost of 10.2 billion yuan (about US$1.26 billion), exercises control over four nuclear power generating units at Daya Bay and Ling'ao plants, two at each. The four units have a combined installed capacity of approximately 4 million kw.

 

It has been building four more nuclear power generating units at Ling'ao, close to the Daya Bay power plant.

 

The province plans to increase its total nuclear generating capacity to 24 million kilowatt by 2020, according to the provincial government.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2006)