US power outage sounds alarm bell for China
( 2003-08-18 07:28) (China Daily)
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 undergoingpreliminary
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 per cent 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 per cent in the second half of this year.
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