Quake-hit Yushu to get new power grid

Construction started Wednesday on a power grid needed to ease an electricity shortage in a far western Chinese town laid to waste by an earthquake two years ago.

The State Grid Corporation of China will invest 2.5 billion yuan (393 million U.S. dollars) in the project in Qinghai province that includes 800-km-long wires and substations, said Wang Hongzhi, president of the SGCC's Qinghai subsidiary.

The 330-kv project, which is expected to start operation in June next year, will connect the isolated grid in the Yushu Tibetan autonomous prefecture with the main grid in Qinghai, Wang said.

Due to environmental protection pressure and complicated geological and terrain conditions, Yushu, home to the source of China's three major rivers, suffers from power shortages.

Over 200,000 residents in 31 out of 45 townships in Yushu still have no access to electricity, official data shows. Also the shortage hampers post-quake construction.

Its isolated grid was severely damaged in the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck Yushu in April 2010, claiming 2,698 lives and injuring over 12,000.

"Yushu has several hydropower stations," said Nan Yang, governor of Zhiduo county in Yushu. "But due to climate and altitude factors, electricity generation far from meets demand and therefore electricity rationing is common."