GUANGZHOU: Guangzhou-based China Southern Power Grid has transmitted 275.7 billion kilowatt hours (klh) from the southwestern regions of Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi to this economic powerhouse of Guangdong in the past five years.

The grid has played a large part in reducing the pressure of the power shortage in Guangdong.

Electric power sent to Guangdong has seen a year-on-year growth of 34 percent since the company was founded in late 2002, said Yuan Maozhen, chairman of China Southern Power Grid. Yuan spoke when the firm released its 2007 corporate social responsibility report in Guangzhou on Friday.

The company plans to increase its power transmission to Guangdong by 11.5 million kilowatts to 13.5 million kilowatts in the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10) to realize a power-transmission scale of between 22.4 million and 24.4 million kilowatts by 2010.

The firm also offered subsidies worth 1.4 billion yuan to the province for its own power generation during the peak-load period in 2007 alone, he added.

"The regions China Southern Power Grid covers are among the regions most thirsty for power in China," he said. "Their maximum shortage of power reaches 9.4 million kilowatts."

The figure represents over one quarter of the nation's total power shortage, and it is equal to the average annual demand of a province.

"China Southern Power Grid has spared no efforts to minimize the impact of power shortage on the social and economic development in the regions, which consist of the provinces of Guangdong, Hainan, Yunnan, Guizhou and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region," he said.

The power supply in the five regions, on average, has witnessed a year-on-year rise of 13.7 percent in the past five years.

Meanwhile, he said, the firm has saved 46 billion kwh from the green power transmission program in the last five years.

"The power saved is equal to a reduced consumption of coal equivalent of 15.07 million tons, reduced emission of sulfur dioxide of 360,000 tons and reduced emission of soot of 150,000 tons," he explained. "We have been doing our part to contribute to the environmental protection."

He said that China Southern Power Grid has also been doing its best to reinstate the power supply during and after natural disasters, such as the snow storms in Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan in January and February.

(HK Edition 05/13/2008 page1)