China leads the Asia-Pacific region in terms of its smart grid development projects

As electricity demand continues to increase, nearly all major Asia-Pacific (APAC) countries are pursuing the deployment of smart grid technology to increase the efficiency of their power distribution systems, and China is leading the region in terms of its smart grid development projects, says a new report from research and consulting firm GlobalData.

The company’s latest report* states that following the global recession of 2007 and 2008, the APAC region is now leading the recovery, boasting a faster growth level than most developed economies. To maintain these rates, various Asian countries will need to enhance their Transmission and Distribution (T&D) infrastructure.

GlobalData believes that China’s utilization of Ultra-High-Voltage (UHV) transmission, along with its increasing UHV technology adoption and growing focus on renewable energy sources, is playing a key role in developing robust T&D infrastructure in the country.

Siddhartha Raina, Senior Analyst for GlobalData, says: “China decided to invest in UHV transmission in 2004 due to the distant location of energy resource sites from its southern and eastern load centers. This technology was a logical choice for keeping the country’s T&D losses low over such long distances.”

The country’s fourth largest UHV project, a 1,000 kilovolt UHV alternating current transmission project, which starts from Anhui province and extends to East China, became operational on September 25 last year.

According to GlobalData, these projects are part of the State Grid Corporation of China’s (SGCC) plan to invest approximately $75.5 billion in the construction of UHV power transmission lines by 2015. Both the SGCC and China Southern Power Grid Company are rapidly utilizing the UHV transmission lines to expand the country’s grid system.

Raina continues: “The focus of the Chinese government clearly lies on grid modernization and improving efficiency. The government set a target to interconnect its existing grids and form an integrated synchronous national grid by the end of 2020. This will help to facilitate the efficient transfer of electricity in order to meet growing power demands, as well as demands from the renewable energy sector.”