Construction of a major national energy project, the Baoshan Thermal Power Plant, started on Wednesday in Huixian, central China's Henan Province, said officials with the Henan provincial government.
   
The plant is jointly sponsored by China Huadian Group Corp. and Construction Investment Co. Ltd. of Xinxiang city, some 80 kilometers north of the provincial capital Zhengzhou.
   
The first phase of construction involves the installation of two 660 MW coal-fueled generators to supply electricity to the central China grid, and will cost 4.6 billion yuan (US$551 million).
   
The two generators are expected to start operation in the first half of 2007 and are designed to generate 7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year. Local officials say this will ease the supply bottleneck on the central China power grid and will generate more than 2 billion yuan (US$240 million) of industrial output value.

(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2005)