China building world's largest capacity transmission line

A record-setting ultra-high voltage direct current (UHVDC) transmission line will transmit up to 8 million kW upon completion in 2014.

The State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), the project contractor, said the 800 KV UHVDC transmission line will span over 2,000km in China’s western Xinjiang Uyghur region. It will connect Hami prefecture in Xinjiang with the city of Zhengzhou in Henan province in north central China.

Construction of the line designed with the world's largest capacity began this week. It will cost US$3.7 billion and is designed to have a transmission capacity of 8 million kw upon completion in 2014, a new world record.

The line will transmit 37 billion kWh on average every year and will remove 317,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and 267,000 tons of nitrogen oxide from the atmosphere.

China has been suffering from a prolonged and deteriorating power situation in recent years. This has become a driving force in developing long-distance, high-voltage power transmission lines.

The construction of the UHVDC transmission line comes as China strives to transmit electricity from the energy-rich west to the booming central and eastern regions.

China's massive energy sources are mostly in the west and north, more than 2,000 km from the power network load centers in the eastern and central regions, said Zhang Guobao, director of Expert Advisory Committee under the National Energy Administration.

"The ultra-high power transmission lines are a way out for the country's imbalanced distribution of energy reserve," Zhang said.