Power-thirsty China plans national grid

BEIJING - Sept 11 - Booming China plans to boost electricity capacity to 400,000 megawatts by 2005 and accelerate transmission between the west and power-thirsty east through a national grid, the official Xinhua news agency said on Thursday. Installed capacity in China, the world's second-largest power market after the United States, was 356,000 megawatts at the end of 2002. A national grid would be set up by 2010, Xinhua quoted Zhang Guobao, vice-minister of the State Development and Reform Commission, as saying. Ten years later, the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower project, would be at its core. Some 100,000 megawatts of electricity would be transmitted from the hinterland west to the booming east in 2020, Xinhua said without elaborating. The surging Chinese economy is gasping for electricity. Consumption has been growing at about 16 percent annually, but blackouts have plagued more than half China's provinces this year.

Power-thirsty China plans national grid The first generator at the Three Gorges Dam was put into operation in July. A total 26 generators with capacity of 18,200 megawatts will be all on stream by 2009.