City stage of greener power is under way

By Lu Feiran  |   2008-12-31  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

CONSTRUCTION of the Shanghai converter station for the direct current power transmission project from Gezhouba to Shanghai began yesterday in Qingpu District.

The project, which is expected to be complete in 2010, will bring Shanghai a 3-million-kilowatt generating capacity of green power every year, said the State Grid Corporation of China.

The generating capability will equal that generated by 1.5 million tons of coal, reducing carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide emissions, officials said.

"We connect direct current generators together to obtain high-pressure power and transmit the power from the western areas to the east," said Chen Jinxing, general manager of the company. "Compared with coal-consuming power transmission, the method will be more environmentally friendly and energy saving."

More than 970 kilometers of transmission lines will carry the power from Jingmen, Hubei Province, to Shanghai, passing through Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces. Most of the power lines were reconstructed on the basis of lines built in the early 1990s, the company said.

The project will serve not only Shanghai but the whole eastern China region.