CSG Constructs the Longest and Highest Channel for West-East Electricity Transmission in China

On February 3, CSG officially launched the Dianxibei ±800 kV UHVDC project, the longest and highest transmission channel of the West-East Electricity Transmission Project. As one of the CSG’s 12 key transmission channels to implement the State Council’s action plan on preventing air pollution and a key project of the State Council to guarantee stable economic growth, this project with a total investment of about RMB 22.2 billion is planned to be put into operation in 2017.

The channel stretches across four provinces, with an annual power transmission volume equaling to 1/4 of Shenzhen’s annual electricity consumption.

It is reported that the Dianxibei DC Project with a total length of 1,959 km spans west to Jianchuan County, Dali Prefecture, Yunnan Province, east to Baoan District, Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, and passes through 53 counties in Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Guangdong Provinces. It is the longest power transmission line among all CSG grids so far and the first UHVDC transmission line of the West-East Electricity Transmission Project that stops in Shenzhen, along which the Xinsong power station in Yunnan Province is the world’s highest UHV converter station (2,350 m). Once completed, this project will be able to transmit around 20TWh power to Guangzhou per year, amounting to 1/4 of Shenzhen’s annual electricity consumption.

This project with a transmission capacity of 5 GW and a total investment of about RMB 22.2 billion is planned to employ the ±800 kV power transmission scheme, and will be in operation in 2017.

This project will enable Pearl River Delta region to reduce CO2 emission by 16 million tons per year.

As one of the CSG’s 12 key transmission channels to implement the National Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution, the establishment of the Dianxibei DC Project can not only improve the ability of the upper Lancang River (western China) to deliver electricity outside, but also ease the environmental pollution in Pearl River Delta, which in turn will facilitate the transformation of economic development mode and promote the development of low-carbon economy.

Once the project is put into operation, the Pearl River Delta region, if calculated by 20TWh of power transmission per year, is able to reduce coal consumption by 6.4 million tons, CO2 emission by 16 million tons and SO2 emission by 123,000 tons annually. As a result, the environmental pressure of the Pearl River Delta can be alleviated, and the sound and sustainable development of the regional economy can be achieved.

By 2020, the volume of West-East electricity transmission will increase by 26%, compared with that at the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan period.

Currently, CSG’s West-East electricity transmission grids have already formed 16 major transmission channels of 500 kV-and- above, that is, the “eight A/C transmission channels and eight D/C transmission channels”. The transmission channels of 500 kV-and-above stretch 18,440 km with the power transmission volume of 35 GW.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, CSG plans to launch three major electricity transmission channels, including a ±800 kV UHVDC transmission project from northwestern Yunnan to Guangdong, a ±500 kV DC transmission project from the power plant at the middle reaches of the Jinsha River in Yunnan to Guangxi Province and a ±500 kV channel starting from Guanyinyan Hydropower Station in Yunnan. It is estimated that by 2020, the transmission volume of CSG’s 19 West-East electricity transmission channels will reach 46 GW, 26% higher than that at the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan Period.