A major power transmission line that links Three Gorges project
with Shanghai starts operation on Saturday, amid efforts to ensure
the city's huge demand for power.
The 500-kv power transmission line, with investment of US$894
million, can send three million kw of electricity from the world's
largest hydro power project in central Hubei Province to Shanghai.
Officials estimate the electricity carried by the line will
account for one seventh of the total power consumption in Shanghai
next year, which was plagued by power shortages in the past several
years.
The line runs 1,040 kilometers through four provinces of Hubei,
Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang before reaching Shanghai.
It is the third such power transmission line built in Three
Gorges Project on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Two
others connect the project to Changzhou, a city in eastern Jiangsu
Province, and Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong
Province.
Launched in 1993 and built at an estimated cost of 180 billion
yuan (US$23 billion), the Three Gorges Project will have 26
generators with a combined generating capacity of 18.2 million kw
and will be able to generate 84.7 billion kwh of electricity
annually when it is completed in 2009.
(Xinhua News Agency December 10, 2006)