Power projects with a combined installed capacity of 29.2 million kilowatts will be under construction in 12 western China provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005), accounting for 37.4 percent of the total of the country's new power projects.

Hydropower projects will have an installed capacity of 14.84 million kilowatts, representing 59.7 percent of the projects to be built in western China, according to sources from the State Electric Power Corporation (SEPC).

The state will issue a series of preferential policies in terms of taxation and investment to support the construction of power projects in western China, the sources said.

The State Development Planning Commission (SDPC) and the SEPC recently held a special meeting on carrying out the strategy of the State Council to transmit 10 million kilowatts of electricity from western China to Guangdong Province in the eastern coast during the 2001-2005 period.

Construction work has begun on seven electric power projects in western China, including the Tianshengqiao hydropower station in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the Hongjiadu hydropower station in Guizhou Province.

The central government has decided that a number of large hydropower stations for the western region and some large coal-fueled power plants will be built in the provinces of Shanxi and Guizhou to lay the foundation for the west-to-east power transmission project.

China has potential hydropower resources of 378 million kilowatts in installed capacity, ranking first in the world, but only 9 percent of the resources have been developed, far below the world average of 22 percent.

Meanwhile, 70 percent of the country's hydropower resources and 64 percent of its coal resources are in the remote western region.

Under the current conditions, the cost of one kilowatt-hour of electricity sent from Yunnan in the southwest to Guangdong will be 1,120 yuan less than that of one kilowatt-hour of electricity generated by Guangdong's coal-fueled power plant, said experts. There will be a big market in the east for electricity from the west, they said.

According to SDPC officials, the planned power transmission project will ensure part of the funds badly needed to kick off the campaign of developing the vast western China region.

With the completion of power transmission project, the numerous small coal-fueled power plants in eastern China will be shut down to protect the environment, the officials said.

China has three major areas through which power in the west is currently transmitted to the east. In the north, power is transmitted from Shanxi and Inner Mongolia to Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan. In the south, electricity is sent from Guizhou to Guangdong and electricity produced by the Gezhouba hydropower station in Hubei Province goes to Shanghai.

(Xinhua 11/28/2000)