China to connect Xilodu hydro station with UHV transmission line

The State Grid Corporation of China has started the construction on a west-to-east ultra-high voltage direct current power transmission project.

Starting in the city of Yibin in Sichuan province, the 1679.9-kilometer transmission line will traverse Guizhou, Jiangxi and Hunan provinces to reach Zhejiang's central city of Jinhua.

The SGCC will invest US$3.79 billion in the construction of the project.

It will transport about 40 billion kilowatt-hours of hydropower from Xiluodu Hydropower Station in southwest China to Zhejiang annually after its scheduled completion in 2014, saving 12.28 million tonnes of standard
coal or 34 million tonnes in carbon emissions.

The project is the SGCC's third UHV DC power transmission project after the Xiangjiaba-Shanghai and Jinping-Nanjing transmission lines. The three transmission lines together will support a transmission
capacity of 21.6 million kilowatts and help meet rising power demands in energy-consuming cities in eastern China, said Liu Zehong, director of SGCC's DC power construction department.

Xiluodu Hydropower Station on the Jinshajiang River is the country's third largest hydropower project after the Three Gorges project and Xiangjiaba Hydropower Station.

The installed capacity for hydropower on the Jinshajiang River could amount to 90 million kilowatts, about five times that of the Three Gorges project, according to Liu.

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