Baihetan-Jiangsu UHVDC line delivers 100b kWh of green power

The ±800-kilovolt Baihetan-Jiangsu ultra-high voltage direct current (UHVDC) transmission project has delivered more than 100.02 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of clean hydropower to East China's Jiangsu province to date, injecting steady green momentum into the economic development of the Yangtze River Delta region, State Grid Sichuan Electric Power Co said.

The volume of green electricity transmitted through the mega project is equivalent to cutting standard coal consumption by nearly 30 million metric tons and slashing carbon emissions by over 90 million tons, it said.

Stretching 2,087 kilometers, the Baihetan-Jiangsu transmission line was put into commercial operation in July 2022. With a designed transmission capacity of 8 million kilowatts, the project can deliver nearly 23 billion kWh of electricity to Jiangsu annually, serving as a vital corridor for optimizing energy resource allocation between China's western and eastern regions.

China's energy resources and major power load centers are inversely distributed geographically. By channeling abundant clean hydropower from Southwest China's Sichuan province to manufacturing powerhouse Jiangsu, where electricity demand remains robust, the project works alongside other cross-regional power corridors as a crucial pillar of Jiangsu's external electricity supply.

As the world's first hybrid cascaded UHVDC transmission project, the Baihetan-Jiangsu line achieves high-capacity, long-distance power delivery while significantly enhancing the operational flexibility and stability of the power grid.

"Currently, the supporting transmission channels of the Jianchang converter station are undergoing continuous expansion, which will allow the abundant hydro, wind and solar clean electricity generated in the Liangshan region to flow steadily into the main grid," said Song Zilin, head of the Jianchang converter station under the DC branch of State Grid Sichuan Electric Power Co.

At the receiving end in Jiangsu, the Gusu converter station has established an integrated "air-space-ground" smart operation and maintenance system. The facility conducts automated intelligent inspections across 19,300 core monitoring points. The smart system has boosted inspection efficiency nearly tenfold compared with traditional manual methods, ensuring the safe and reliable delivery of clean hydropower.

As China's cross-regional power transmission capacity continues to advance, larger volumes of clean electricity from the country's western regions will be transmitted to eastern load centers, providing solid support for national energy security and the country's green, low-carbon transition.