Qinghai-Henan UHV DC Project Put into Operation

The Qinghai-Henan ultra-high voltage (UHV) direct current (DC) power transmission project was put into operation on Dec 30. It is the world's first long distance clean energy transmission project.

Starting from Hainan Tibet Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province and terminating at Zhumadian in Henan Province, the 1,563-kilometer line passes Gansu and Shaanxi provinces.

Contracted by State Grid Corporation of China (State Grid), construction of the project, which has a transmission capacity of 8 million kilowatts, started in November 2018.

Qinghai is home to rich new energy resources with developable solar power and wind power generation of 1 billion kW and 400 million kW respectively.

By the end of 2019, installed capacity of renewable resources in Qinghai was 27.76 million kW.

Operation of the power transmission project was the first UHV power transmission line and is expected to contribute to clean energy development in Qinghai.

It is estimated that the project will provide about 40 billion kWh of power to Central China annually.

With a total investment of 22.3 billion yuan ($3.45 billion), the project has attracted more than 100 billion yuan of investment in the new energy industry and played a key role in resumption of work in the post-pandemic period as well as high-quality development of upstream and downstream enterprises.

It will also support development of pillar industries and green industries in Qinghai while meeting increasing power demands in Henan.

A model of ±800 kV and 8 million-kW UHV DC power transmission project, the Qinghai-Henan UHV DC power transmission project is equipped with advanced technologies with better performance in flexibility, adaptability, reliability and overload capacity than those previously used.

State Grid has been in full swing in promoting clean, low-carbon, safe and highly-efficient energy utilization. So far, the company has completed construction of 13 UHV alternating current and 12 UHV DC projects and has transmitted more than 1.6 trillion kWh of power.

A view of the Qinghai-Henan UHV DC power transmission project in Gansu Province [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

A view of the Zhumadian convertor station in Henan of the Qinghai-Henan UHV DC power transmission project [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)