The State Grid Corp of China (SGCC), the nation's largest electricity transmission company, has signed an agreement with the Tibet Autonomous Region government to form a power company.

The Tibet Power Co Ltd will enjoy a series of preferential policies and serve as the main body for the central government's financial support for power construction in the region.

The company will help promote hydropower development, develop new energies, and expand the grid network and power supply coverage in the region, said the SGCC

The SGCC plans to invest over 200 billion yuan this year in a further effort to provide electricity to every rural household in the country during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).

It invested 176 billion yuan to extend its grid in 2006, up 47 percent year-on-year.

The company last year began to build China's first ultra-high voltage transmission line, the country's first move to transmit power over a long distance using 1,000-kilovolt (kV) alternating current.

The line, which will stretch 653.8 kilometers and cross China's Yellow River and the Hanjiang River, will transmit power produced in Shanxi Province, China's largest coal production base, to Nanyang city of central China's Henan Province and then on to Jingmen city of central China's Hubei Province.

With an estimated cost of over 5 billion yuan, the grid is designed to have a rated voltage of 1,000-kV, and a transmission power of 5 million kilowatts.

The SGCC has also built 30 exchange stations that play an important role in building a power system by optimizing allocation.

China's grid companies are now investing billions of yuan to connect power networks. Two giant companies, the SGCC and China Southern Power Grid Co Ltd, are increasing expansion of the nationwide power grid, which will involve a total investment of more than 1 trillion yuan during the 11th Five-Year Plan.

Expansion of the grid will mainly focus on the West to East Power Transmission Project, said Wang Yonggan, secretary of the China Electricity Council.

(China Daily July 28, 2007)