China will speed up the development of electric power resources
in the west region to prepare for a huge west-to-east electricity
transmission project.
Power projects
with a combined installed capacity of 29.2 million kilowatts
will be under construction in 12 western China provinces,
autonomous regions and municipalities in the 10th Five-Year
Plan period (2001-2005), accounting for 37.4 percent of the
total of the country's new power projects.
Hydropower projects
will have an installed capacity of 14.84 million kilowatts,
representing 59.7 percent of the projects to be built in western
China, according to sources from the State Electric Power
Corporation (SEPC).
The state will
issue a series of preferential policies in terms of taxation
and investment to support the construction of power projects
in western China, the sources said.
The State Development
Planning Commission (SDPC) and the SEPC recently held a special
meeting on carrying out the strategy of the State Council
to transmit 10 million kilowatts of electricity from western
China to Guangdong Province in the eastern coast during the
2001-2005 period.
Construction work
has begun on seven electric power projects in western China,
including the Tianshengqiao hydropower station in the Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region and the Hongjiadu hydropower station
in Guizhou Province.
The central government
has decided that a number of large hydropower stations for
the western region and some large coal-fueled power plants
will be built in the provinces of Shanxi and Guizhou to lay
the foundation for the west-to-east power transmission project.
China has potential
hydropower resources of 378 million kilowatts in installed
capacity, ranking first in the world, but only 9 percent of
the resources have been developed, far below the world average
of 22 percent.
Meanwhile, 70 percent
of the country's hydropower resources and 64 percent of its
coal resources are in the remote western region.
Under the current
conditions, the cost of one kilowatt-hour of electricity sent
from Yunnan in the southwest to Guangdong will be 1,120 yuan
less than that of one kilowatt-hour of electricity generated
by Guangdong's coal-fueled power plant, said experts. There
will be a big market in the east for electricity from the
west, they said.
According to SDPC
officials, the planned power transmission project will ensure
part of the funds badly needed to kick off the campaign of
developing the vast western China region.
With the completion
of power transmission project, the numerous small coal-fueled
power plants in eastern China will be shut down to protect
the environment, the officials said.
China has three
major areas through which power in the west is currently transmitted
to the east. In the north, power is transmitted from Shanxi
and Inner Mongolia to Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan. In the
south, electricity is sent from Guizhou to Guangdong and electricity
produced by the Gezhouba hydropower station in Hubei Province
goes to Shanghai.
(Xinhua 11/28/2000)
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