A total of 71.7 billion-yuan ($10.3 billion) has been invested in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region's power grid by State Grid's Xinjiang branch during the period of the country's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

Xinjiang has built its fourth power transmission channel with the investment and strengthened the 750 kV ring network by extending the grid to Hotan prefecture in southern Xinjiang and Altay prefecture in the north. The moves make Xinjiang's power grid in the largest in the country.

According to Zhang Feng, assistant director of the branch's development department, said the total investment of 287.7 billion yuan on power in Xinjiang accounted for 12.4 percent of the region's value-added industrial output and contributed 4.56 percent to the economic growth of Xinjiang.

Xinjiang is an important energy base in China, with coal, oil, natural gas, wind energy and solar resources. The region expects to speed up the development of its resources, especially in the construction of coal, electricity, and coal chemical bases. All require a reliable power industry.

To promote the export of the region's power and optimize the energy structure and layout, the branch has built the Zhundong-Wannan transmission project (1100 kV UHV DC) as a fourth channel, which connects power transmission infrastructure between Xinjiang and Anhui province.

Zhang said the fourth channel enables power delivery to reach 25 million kilowatts, which meets the needs of efficient development of energy bases and large-scale delivery.

Meanwhile, the branch has accelerated the construction of its 750 kV main grid and the transformation of urban and rural power distribution networks in the region to achieve coordinated development of grids at all levels.

With the rapid development of the industry, the region has 24 important power stations of 750 kV and above, with the transformer capacity of 60.5 million kVA, and 60 transmission lines of 8,261 kilometers, which have comprehensively improved the power supply's capacity and reliability.