The Xinjiang branch of the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) will invest 201.9 billion yuan (32.5 billion U.S. dollars) to improve the power grid in the region from 2016 to 2020, the company announced Monday.
The move aims at improving power infrastructure in Xinjiang and better connecting the region's power grid with the rest of China in order to transmit more of Xinjiang's redundant electric power to other parts of the country, according to SGCC, China's top power distributor.
By 2020, the company will complete the construction of power transmission lines linking Xinjiang with southwestern Sichuan Province, southwestern Chongqing Municipality, northwestern Qinghai Province, and eastern China. The project expects to increase Xinjiang's outward power transmission capacity to 300 billion kilowatt hours a year.
Moreover, five 750 kilovolt ringed power networks will be built within the region.
The construction of a 750 kv power transmission line connecting Xinjiang with northwestern China was completed in 2013. An 800 kv ultra-high voltage direct current transmission line between Xinjiang and central Henan Province went operational in 2014. The two lines attracted a total of 300 billion yuan of investment to the region and pushed up the regional GDP by 1.5 percent.
