China's leading coal producing Shanxi Province has piped 25 billion
kilowatt-hours (kwh) of electricity to the other parts of the country this year,
the provincial electric power company said Wednesday.
The country's leading power supplier, Shanxi has been generating electricity
to fuel up North China and some eastern provinces, said Niu Renliang, vice
governor of the province.
According to Niu, at least a quarter of all the Chinese capital's electricity
comes from Shanxi, that means one out of every four lamps in Beijing is lit with
electricity generated by the province.
The province has installed and put into operation seven new generators this
year, to generate 1.3 million kwh of electricity for itself and an additional
1.1 million kwh for China's landmark west-to-east electricity transmission
project.
Of all the six power plants designed in the northern section of the landmark
project, four are under construction in Shanxi with a total generation capacity
of 4.6 million kwh, according to Niu.
He said the province has also stepped up infrastructure construction and
completed four electricity transmission lines to Beijing, Hebei Province, Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region and Jiangsu Province.
Hydropower, thermal power and nuclear power are three main types of
electricity now available in China, with thermal power continuing to dominate
the country's power industrial development.
China's economic boom has driven up power demand and brought about a severe
power shortage in 2004 that forced 27 out of the 31 provinces, municipalities
and autonomous regions to exercise brownouts.
With more power generation facilities being installed and electricity
transmitted from the energy-rich west to the hungry east, energy officials
predict the power shortage would be eased by 2006.
