State Grid in Full Swing on UHV Construction

Construction of the section in Central China's Hubei province of the ±800 kV North Shaanxi-Hubei ultra high-voltage (UHV) direct current (DC) project recently began. It was the first major energy project to resume construction in the province after the COVID-19 outbreak was brought under control.

Contracted by State Grid Corporation of China (State Grid), the project will mean construction of nearly 3,000 km of high-voltage transmission line over the next three years.

An employee at the project said that the builders will make full efforts to complete the UHV convertor station in October this year to guarantee the completion of the Hubei section by the end of 2021.

It is estimated that the ±800 kV North Shaanxi-Hubei UHV DC project will drive equipment manufacturing valued at about 12 billion yuan ($1.69 billion), and promote such relevant industries as power supply with more than 70 billion yuan of investment, advancing transformation and upgrading of the electronic equipment industry.

In addition, the project will create more than 40,000 jobs.

So far, eight of State Grid's UHV projects have resumed construction, including the ±800 kV Qinghai-Henan UHV DC project, the 1,000 kV UHV alternating current (AC) project and the ±800 kV Yazhong-Jiangxi UHV DC project.

According to State Grid, the roughly 181.1 billion yuan to be invested in UHV project construction in 2020 will drive social investment of 360 billion yuan.

The projects will contribute to high-quality development of China's economy.

State Grid has made a primary plan to invest 450 billion yuan in power grid construction in 2020, which will lead to social investment of more than 900 billion yuan.

The investment will play a significant role in driving economic growth, improving employment, pushing forward industrial transformation and stabilizing social development.

(Executive editor: Zhang Tianyuan)