The biggest power outage in North America's history last week
has sounded alarm bells over the security of Chinese grid
systems.
Power distribution and management departments across the country
have been urged to upgrade their systems to guarantee a safe
operation, said officials with the National Grid Corporation over
the weekend.
The build-up of regional grids and city-level grids can help
ease the pressure of the whole national grid system which is
undergoing preliminary unification, said the officials.
Beijing has established an emergency prevention system for its
grid system following the US blackout, local government officials
said.
The city's more than 60 percent of power supply comes from
regional grids of Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Hebei and Northeast
China. The city's Shisanling Reservoir hydropower plant can provide
emergency power supplies to the city's key departments if any power
failure takes place.
The electricity generated by the Three Gorges hydropower plant
will be distributed to Guangdong, Jiangxi and Anhui provinces next
year to ease local grid pressure, announced the State Development
and Reform Commission yesterday.
The country's power consumption is forecast to maintain a high
growth rate of more than 8 percent in the second half of this
year.
(China Daily August 18, 2003)