Energy: China's State Grid covers another 545,000 rural households

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-01-19 16:55

The State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC), the country's leading power distributor, brought electricity to another 545,000 rural households, or a population of 1.88 million in China last year, said company spokesman Wang Min on Thursday.

SGCC invested a record 176 billion yuan (22.56 billion U.S. dollars) extending its grid in 2006, up 47 percent year-on-year.

The company plans to raise the investment to 202.5 billion yuan this year, in a further effort to provide electricity to every rural household in the country during the 11th five year period (2006-2010).

The SGCC went one better than its excellent 2005 performance to record 27 billion yuan in net profits in 2006, up 87 percent.

China's electricity trading volume rose 17.7 percent to 168.5 billion kilowatt-hours last year, said Wang.

The company has said electricity trading has great potential in China, with trade volume expected to hit 350 billion kwh in 2010 and 1.5 trillion kwh in 2020.

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