China's state grid to develop global energy interconnection

HONG KONG - The State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) on Thursday held a workshop on investment and financing for global energy interconnection (GEI).

Representatives from the Chinese government, international organizations, financial and power enterprises from China and abroad discussed on the development of GEI.

Liu Zhenya, chairman of the SGCC and China Electricity Council, said the main purpose of the workshop is to promote the establishment and development of GEI by gathering the strength of international financial power.

The mass exploitation and utilization of fossil energy has brought a series of problems such as energy shortage, pollution and climate change, said Liu, adding the fundamental way to solve them is to accelerate the development of clean energy which needs GEI to optimize the allocation of global energy.

GEI is a globally interconnected strong and smart grid with UHV grid as the backbone, which will serve as a platform for extensive development, deployment and utilization of clean energy globally.

"UHV grid is the key, smart grid is the foundation and clean energy is the principle," Liu added.

In 2050, with the establishment of GEI, the proportion of global clean energy will increase to 80 percentage, replacing fossil energy equal to 24 billion tonnes of standard coal and reducing 67 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emission, he said.

"We should jointly promote GEI to become the new engine of economic growth, "Liu said, adding that the scale of the investment in GEI will reach $50 trillion in 2050 if the goal of 80 percentage of clean energy is achieved.

"Power trade will play an ever increasing part in international trade, thus adding further stimulus to world economic growth,"he added.