STATE Grid Corp. of China will start building several new long-distance ultra-high voltage (UHV) power lines as the nation bolsters its clean energy ambitions while accelerating infrastructure spending to boost its economy.

State Grid, the world’s biggest utility, will start constructing the power lines in the second half of the year and the total investment of these projects is expected to hit more than 150 billion yuan (US$22 billion), Xinhua quoted the firm as saying Wednesday.That is expected to bring the company’s total investment in projects in 2022 to a record-high of 1.3 trillion yuan.

State Grid delivers power to more than 1.1 billion people in China, and has a bevy of overseas investments. It’s the world’s leader in UHV lines, which transmit electrons at such high intensity that they can stretch farther without losing power.

The technology is key to China’s ambition of building a massive fleet of wind and solar plants in the country’s inland deserts and connecting them to power-hungry cities along the coast.

In the first half of 2022, State Grid has 11 UHV projects worth 90 billion yuan under construction, with the length of transmission lines totaling 6,828 kilometers, it said.

Among the 11 projects, the Baihetan-Jiangsu 800-kilovolt UHV direct current power transmission project became operational a month ago, transmitting clean hydropower from the southwestern province of Sichuan to eastern China’s economic powerhouse Jiangsu Province.

State Grid said its investment in projects under construction amounted to 883.2 billion yuan in the first seven months. (SD-Agencies)