Mining city looks to cleaner, greener future

As a typical coal mining city, Zaozhuang in East China’s Shandong province has recently embarked on a journey to develop new energies, aimed at injecting fresh impetus into its green transformation.

Zaozhuang has a history of coal mining going back more than a century, which has made a significant contribution to its economic growth, but has also caused severe issues. A large number of coal-mining subsidence areas, for example, have been left across the city.

As a result, in recent years the local government has called for measures to fully tap the potential of the subsidence areas and to develop more new energies, such as lithium-ion batteries.

The city currently has a new energy installation capacity of 3.42 million kilowatts, accounting for just over 40 percent of its total installed capacity. Meanwhile, 115 national high-tech enterprises have settled locally.

In addition, Zaozhuang’s electricity consumption last year surpassed 20 billion kilowatt hours, and the growth of both household and industrial electricity consumption ranked third in the province.

Against such a backdrop, the digital transformation of a local 110 kV substation began last month, so as to better support the production and transmission of new energies, said Zhou Guoqing, director of construction at the State Grid’s Zaozhuang Power Supply Co.

Zhou also said three new 220 kV substations are expected to be built in Zaozhuang this year, which will make it more convenient for customers to obtain their services and achieve green transformation.

liuzizheng@chinadaily.com.cn