China has set up the biggest power grid in the world with a combined installed power capacity of 140 million kilowatts, and a span of 4,600 kilometers across 14 provinces and municipalities, Beijing Daily reported Monday.

China's two important power grids, the North China Power Grid and Central China Power Grid, were successfully connected last Friday for the first time, and the interconnected grid operated smoothly, according to the report.

The interconnected power grid outstrips the Far East Power Gridin Russia in capacity, the newspaper said, citing sources from state-owned North China Power Group which runs the North China Power Grid.

The sources said the connection of the two grids will help the power sector to optimize its electrical power resources, enable the two grids to support each other in distribution of electricity, and improve operation safety of the power grids.

The two grids are capable of transmitting 200,000 to 600,000 kilowatts of electricity to each other.

The connection was made possible thanks to a 210-km, 500-kv transmission line, which links the Xin'an Transformer Substation of the North China Grid in Handan City, Hebei Province in north China, with the Huojia Transformer Substation of the Central China Power Grid in Xinxiang City of Henan Province, central China, according to the newspaper.
 
(Xinhua News Agency September 23, 2003)