Power has been restored to all areas affected by the severe weather earlier this year, with the last damaged part of the grid re-connected in China's southwest province of Guizhou.

Every part of land-locked Guizhou, the worst-hit province and the last to have power fully restored, had the electricity back on as of 1:00 PM, China Southern Power Grid (CSG) announced on Saturday.

In Guizhou, ice damaged more than 5,000 transmission lines and about 700 transformer substations, accounting for 78 percent of the province's total power supply facilities. About 17 million people, or nearly half of the province's population, were affected.

The rural power grid was almost completely wiped out by weeks of snow and ice: 4,952 rural transmission lines were destroyed, accounting for 79.17 percent of the rural power grid, affecting about 20 million rural dwellers.

The snow also caused the collapse of 126,247 pylons, 2,686 of which were above 110 kilovolts. The disaster knocked 859 transformer substations out of service and affected 26.18 million people in the 99 counties served by CSG.

The worst winter storms in 50 years caused deaths, widespread transport problems, structural collapses, blackouts and livestock and crop losses in 19 provinces.

(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2008)