Electricity reaches Everest Base Camp
- By Chen Boyuan
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E-mail China.org.cn, April 15, 2014
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| Two electricity workers set up a power post at the foot of Mount Everest. [photo / State Grid News] |
Power supply has reached the 5,200-meter high base camp that leads up to the Mount Everest, setting a literal new record high for any country's power grid, State Grid Corp. of China announced on Monday.
The 10 kv power transmission line, officially operational at 4:00 p.m. on Apr. 12, will provide constant grid power to 1,100 households across 21 villages, along with the world's highest monastery (Rongbuk), before reaching the Everest Base Camp.
Eighty-two-year-old Gongbu was among those locals most joyous upon hearing the news. As one of the world's first mountaineers to reach the Everest summit from the northern ridge, he said, "Electricity at base camp will make things easier. Tourism, communication and lighting will be more convenient, aside from putting more equipment into use for protecting the summit."
The tourism authority in Tingri County, where the base camp is located, said more than 70,000 people visit the Everest Base Camp each year, especially between April and October.
Before the power line was put in use, the electricity supply at the base camp had to rely on solar power and diesel generators, both of which are expensive and unreliable.
Academia also lauded the availability of electricity at the Everest Base Camp. Wang Zhongyan, deputy chief of the Mount Everest Station at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, "It is of huge significance! PV panels cannot generate enough electricity to back up high-power equipment. With the availability of grid power, we can immediately put in more equipment and shorten our sampling period. Eventually we will raise research efficiency," Wang said.
According to State Grid, the company's Tibetan branch will invest 5.396 billion yuan (US$877.47 million) from 2013 to 2015, to set up extensions of the major grid networks, a plan that will send grid power to 387,300 people from 98,400 households across 18 counties.
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