On Thursday State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC) signed a contract with China Three Gorges Project Corp. to purchase 300 billion kilowatt-hours (kwh) of electricity over the next five years. 

The two companies are cooperating on a project to market the electricity generated by the Three Gorges power plant and carry forward the country's West-East electricity transmission project, said a joint statement from the two companies. 

 

 

And the SGCC's national electricity exchange opened on Thursday with the aim of tackling the uneven distribution of energy resources among different regions through electricity trading.

 

Electricity trading had good potential in China, said the SGSS, predicting the trade volume would reach 137.5 billion kwh this year. This is 51 times that of 2000. The number is expected to hit 350 billion kwh in 2010 and 1.5 trillion kwh by 2020. 

 

 

 

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2006)