The Shanghai city will expand power grid connections with other provinces in the coming years to import more electricity, local grid operator said Friday.

The plan aims to ensure sufficient supply without wasting land and creating more pollution by building new generators in the city, officials said.

"Electricity from other provinces accounts for a large part of our supply and is very important to us," said Ruan Qiantu, vice general manager of Shanghai Electric Power Co.

"The transmission capacity of the current links is limited. That could become a bottleneck for us to get enough supply in years to come."

The maximum supply from other provinces this summer was about 4 million kilowatts, while the peak local generation was a little more than 11.4 million kw.

By 2010, imported power will account for one-third of the city's total supply, according to the company's plan.

At present, the city has only two links to get power from other provinces. One is connected to Zhejiang Province, the other linked to Jiangsu Province.

The company plans to add two more links by 2010. One of the new links will be completed during the first half of next year and start operation soon after. Construction on the other link will begin after 2006.

The city's demand for power will continue to grow rapidly over the next few years, due to economic development and a growing number of household electrical appliances in use, power officials said.

The company predicts peak demand will hit 23.5 million to 24.5 million kilowatts in 2010, a rise of about 10 million kw from this year's expected demand.

(Shanghai Daily November 6, 2004)