State Grid Completes 960 Power Grid Construction Projects in Qinghai

As the 110kV power supply line went into service, State Grid Corporation of China (State Grid)'s series of rural power grid renovation and upgrading projects between 2018 and 2020 in Northwest China's Qinghai province recently came to a close.

The projects were intended to help extreme poverty-stricken areas upgrade their power grids and were undertaken by State Grid Qinghai Electric Power Company on the basis of the joint grid construction projects in Yushu and Guoluo Tibetan autonomous prefectures and with the goal of full power coverage in all villages.

With a total investment of about 8.63 billion yuan ($1.22 billion), the series included reinforcement of grid structures, expansion of power grids as well as construction of 23,000 kilometers of power transmission and distribution lines, 74 transformer substations with capacity of 1,699 MVA and 4,376 distribution transformers and renovation of 91,000 ammeters in local households.

The projects brought stable power to people in extremely poor areas.

Within three years, the 960 power projects carried by State Grid had benefited about 1.86 million local people from 485,000 households in the province. They helped residents in extreme poverty-stricken areas access high-quality electricity.

Villagers in the affected areas said that after the power grid was renovated poverty-alleviation hotels were built, in which people from poverty-stricken household were able to work.

Moreover, some households purchased machines for agricultural and breeding industries and some even opened feed processing workshops, which greatly improved family incomes.

As most projects were in the Sanjiangyuan region, a high and cold area with complicated landforms and fragile ecology, engineering was extremely difficult. Some power lines were built at elevations of more than 4,000 meters above sea level. The short construction period put added pressure on the project builders.

To guarantee quality and progress of the projects, the company established stringent management, coordination and performance assessment and an early warning system for risk avoidance to guarantee highly efficient and safe construction.

Upon completion of the series projects, the power supply reliability rate in the Tibetan autonomous prefectures increased to 99.8 percent and the voltage eligibility rate reached 99.5 percent.

It's worth mentioning that the power transformation capacity of each household was improved to 2.48 kVA, 24 percent higher than the national index, which not only met the power demands of local people's daily lives but also contributed to regional industrial development.

For example, the Haixi medlar industrial park, the poverty-alleviation organic animal husbandry industrial park in the Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Huangnan and supporting industries of local tourism are beginning to thrive thanks to the reliable power supply.

Builders of State Grid pull power lines in mountains. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)