China's ambitious "West Electricity for the East" program has started in Sichuan, as the southwest province began transmitting electricity to coastal Shanghai and Zhejiang Province some 2,500 kilometers away Monday.
Under arrangements approved by the State Development Planning Commission and the State Power Corporation, Sichuan will provide 750 million kilowatt hours of electricity each to Shanghai and Zhejiang this year, in addition to 4.9 billion kilowatt hours to neighboring Chongqing.
The cross-region transmission was made possible by the completion of a 380-kilometer, 500 kilovolt power cable between Wanzhou in Chongqing and Gezhouba in Hubei Province in late April, linking the Sichuan-Chongqing grid with central and east China for the first time.
The 2,525-kilometer transmission line between Chongqing and Shanghai is the longest of its kind in the country.
Sichuan boasts one of the richest hydropower resources in China.Its hydropower reserve is estimated at a quarter of the national total.
The province aims to increase its installed generating capacity from 11.53 million kilowatts to 50 million kilowatts by 2020.
"West Electricity for the East" is one of the Chinese government's most ambitious engineering and economic projects. It aims to send the rich electricity resources in west and southwest China to economically more developed, but energy-thirsty eastern regions.
(People's Daily June 1, 2002)
