State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), China's largest power network operator, plans to invest Cyu 210bn (about US$34bn) in the construction of 12 new transmission lines in the country. The company has started the approval process for 4 ultra-high-voltage alternating current (UHV AC) transmission lines (up to 6,000 MW), 5 UHV direct current (DC) lines and 3 conventional 500 kV lines. They would connect coal producing regions and hydropower centers in inland areas (Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Yunnan) to consumption centers on the east coast: Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and economic hubs along the Yangtze and Pearl rivers. SGCC would build 11 of the transmission lines and leave the construction of the line from Yunnan to Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and Hainan to the China Southern Power Grid. If approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, construction could start as early as this year.
China has two UHV DC lines in operation: the Xiangjiaba-Shanghai line commissioned in 2010 and the Jinping-Nanjing line completed in 2012; a third UHV DC line is under construction and should connect the Sichuan province to the Jiangxi, Hunan and Guizhou provinces by the end of 2014.