South China's Guangdong Province plans to invest 19.5 billion yuan (US$2.34 billion) this year to step up power grid construction and build additional transmission lines totaling 4,057 kilometers.

According to Yuan Maozhen, chairman of board with the China Southern Power Grid, the provincial power grid is expected to suffer an electricity shortage totaling 3.15 billion kwh in the second quarter of this year.

The peak load in the whole province this summer is likely to hit 45 million kw. With some new electricity generating capacity installed in June, the province's power supply and demand will be moderately eased, the chairman said.

To ensure electricity supply to Guangdong, the country's major economic powerhouse, the Southern Power Grid will try to get the province additional 1.85 billion kwh of electricity generated by the Three Gorges Power Project, and plans to purchase 2.5 billion kwh of electricity from Hong Kong.

The power grid plans to build additional transmission lines totaling 4,057 kilometers, which is likely to basically solve the bottleneck in the province's electricity supply by the end of this year, the chairman said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 20, 2005)