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At the beginning of new millennium, Chinese government decided to launch a campaign of western development. One of the priorities is explore western energy resources. To send more electricity to Eastern China is called for. On Nov 8, hundreds of government officials and construction teams gathered at 3 construction sites of the first 7 newly planned hydropower stations in Guizhou, symbolizing the start of Western Development. Premier Zhu Rongji sent his congratulations to the event, say: ”The project of sending more electricity to Eastern China symbolizes the opening ceremony of Western Development.”
The project is an import step to connect Eastern China and Western China, and both sides will be greatly benefited by sharing western natural resources and eastern technology and capital. The whole project is divided into three regions: Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi send its extra electricity to Northern China; Sichuan to Central China; while Guizhou to South china. T is planned that 10 million kilowatts will be transferred to Guangdong during the period from 2000 to 2005, and Guizhou will take 40% of the total. According to the agreement between Guizhou and Guangdong assigned in August of 2000, Guizhou will send 0.6 million kilowatts more to Guangdong in 2001. the total watts will reach 1.5 million to 2 million kilowatts in 2002, and 2.3 million kilowatts in 2003, and 4 million watts in 2004 or above.
Guizhou gets the lion’s share of this project and will make a better use of its energy resources, such as waterpower and coal. Since Guizhou has got about a coal deposit of 241.9 billion tons, which surpasses the total of the 9 southern provinces in china. Theoretically, Guizhou is endowed with a potential of waterpower up to 18.4544 million kilowatts, ranking 4th in China. The Wujiang River’s exploration is especially attractive, as one of the main branches of the Yangtze. The cooperation of sending more electricity to Guangdong was put forth in 1988 and on august 1, 2000, the first agreement was reached between two sides.
Facing the opportunity, Guizhou governments at all level will make great efforts to fulfill the task. The provincial Government has given great importance to this project. A modern grid is to be set up soon connecting all the local power stations and become the super channel by which more and more electricity will be sent to Guangdong.
This project will bring a lot more chances to push forward the development of local economy, such as coal production, transportation and service industries. The potential value will be more recognized in the coming years. |
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