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Firm to invest in rural distribution

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-06-13 09:39

China Southern Power Grid (CSG), one of China's two state-owned power grid firms, plans to invest 55 billion yuan (6.9 billion U.S. dollars) to improve its county-level grids by 2010.

The company would also spend 3.3 billion yuan in the next five years to complete its village-level grids, in an effort to bring electricity to 410,000 rural households, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

This year, the company would invest 11.1 billion yuan to reconstruct the county-level grids and 1.8 billion yuan to build village-level grids. By the end of next year, 160,000 households in CSG's coverage area will enjoy electricity for the first time, said an SASAC source.

The CSG grids cover the southern provinces of Guangdong, Yunnan, Guizhou and Hainan, and Guangxi Zhaung Autonomous Region, with 338 county-level branches providing electricity to more than 170 million people, 73 percent of the region's population.

CSG chairman Yuan Maozhen said the company made "serving the countryside" its prime task in the next five years.

The CSG would also help local governments explore the application of renewable energy, to enable every family to have electricity, Yuan said.