Construction of the Hongjiadu and Yinzidu hydropower stations, and
the expansion of the Wujiangdu Hydropower Station started Wednesday
on the Wujiang River, in southwest China's Guizhou Province.
The projects are among the first group of China's massive west-east
electricity transmission project, marking the beginning of the
development of the western region.
Wujiang River is the biggest tributary on the southern bank of the
Yangtze River, the longest river in China.
The three projects have a combined power capacity of 1.49 million
kilowatts and involve an investment of 7.3 billion yuan。
At
the same time，construction of three electricity
transmission lines and a thermal power station in Yunnan also
started.
The seven projects, covering Yunnan, Guizhou and Hubei provinces,
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Chongqing Municipality, will
form the south route of the west-east electricity transmission
project, sending electricity to the south China power grid.
The north route will transmit electricity through the Inner
Mongolia Autonomous region and Shaanxi Province to the north China
power grid, and the third route will travel through Sichuan and
other provinces sending electricity to the central China and east
China power grids.
Guizhou has water energy resources of 16.4 million kilowatts and
perspective coal reserves of 240 billion tons, with an expected
installed capacity of 40 million kilowatts.
Construction of the three power station projects will help raise
Guizhou's total installed capacity to 13 million kilowatts by the
end of 2005 from the current 6 million kilowatts.
According to an agreement between Guizhou and Guangdong provinces,
Guizhou will start sending electricity to Guangdong in 2003, and by
2005, Guizhou will transmit 3-4 million kilowatts of electricity to
Guangdong annually.
The west-east electricity transmission project refers to the fact
that China is developing the rich power resources in the western
region and sending electricity to Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang
provinces, Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin and other places which are in
short supply of electricity.
China is the country having richest water energy resources in the
world. It has an exploitable installed capacity of 378 million
kilowatts and an annual production capacity of 192 million
kilowatt-hours. Ninety percent of the potential power resources are
in China's southwest，central and northwest regions.
By
the end of 1999, the total installed capacity of China's hydropower
stations was 73 million kilowatts, accounting for 19 percent of the
national total water energy resources.
Furthermore, China's coal reserves are mainly concentrated in
Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces and the western part of the Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region. However, seven provinces and
municipalities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong account
for more than 40 percent of the national total power
consumption.
(Xinhua 11/08/2000)