State Grid Corporation of China has commissioned the 800 kV Qinghai-Henan ultra-high voltage direct current (UHVDC) power transmission line, which will deliver up to 40 TWh/year of electricity from the Hainan Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Qinghai (northwest China) to the central China province of Henan through the Gansu and Shaanxi provinces. The power line stretches over 1,587 km and required a total investment of CNY 22.3bn (US$3.2bn). Construction had started in November 2018.
In November 2019, State Grid commissioned a new 1,000 kV gas-insulated power transmission line between Suzhou and Nantong, both located in the southeastern Jiangsu Province (China). In April 2020, the company resumed construction on a 800 kV UHVDC power transmission project between Yulin in the Shaanxi province and Wuhan in the Hubei province of China. Construction works had been suspended in the Hubei province, the epicentre of the global coronavirus pandemic. The new line is expected to start operations in 2021. The CNY 18.5bn (US$2.6bn) project will include nearly 3,000 km of UHVDC power lines, with a total transmission capacity of 14 GW. It will enable to deliver 40 TWh/year of electricity from the Shaanxi province - whose coal reserves are estimated at 270 Gt (12% of the national reserves) - to the Hubei province, where electricity demand is rising rapidly.