{ "as_of": "2025-12", "name": "Cross-regional and cross-provincial power flows (West-to-East Power Transmission)", "source": "National Energy Administration (NEA), China Electricity Council (CEC), SASAC, People's Daily/Xinhua — via the \"Seeing China Through the Energy Transition\" series, a CCTV report on 14th Five-Year Plan UHV construction, and the CEC \"China Electric Power Industry Annual Development Report 2026\"", "sources": [ "West-to-East Power Transmission cumulative 2013-2023 >9 trillion kWh (>9,000 TWh) (People's Daily/NEA 2024-10)", "End-14th Five-Year Plan West-to-East transmission capacity 340 GW (up from 270 GW at end of the 13th Five-Year Plan, +~26%) (CCTV/NEA)", "2024 cross-region UHV-DC clean energy delivered ~420 TWh, +70% vs end of the 13th Five-Year Plan, ~60% of UHV-DC outflow (CCTV/NEA)", "46 UHV AC/DC projects operating end-2025 (22 AC + 24 DC), +9.5% y/y (Zhiyan Consulting/industry stats)", "15th Five-Year Plan State Grid (SGCC) fixed-asset capex ¥4 trillion, +40% vs 14th Five-Year Plan (~¥800 billion/yr) (NEA/SASAC/People's Daily 2026-01-15)", "15th Five-Year Plan cross-region transfer capacity to rise more than 30% from the end-14th Five-Year Plan level (NEA 2026-01)", "15th Five-Year Plan: 15 new UHV DC lines into operation, West-to-East Power Transmission scale above 420 GW, 6+ regional grid mutual-support interconnection projects (~40 GW), national grid fixed-asset investment ¥5 trillion+ (+80% vs 14th Five-Year Plan) (CEC \"China Electric Power Industry Annual Development Report 2026\" 2026-07-17)", "2025 grid capex ¥639.5 billion +5.1%, UHV-DC work +25.7% (CEC 2026-02)", "2025 closeout: four UHV DC lines (Longdong-Shandong, Ningxia-Hunan, Hami-Chongqing, Upper Jinsha-Hubei) + Qinghai-Tibet grid interconnection phase II (NEA 2025-12-22)", "2026 first: Northern Shaanxi-Anhui ±800 kV DC in operation 2026-06-30 (1,055 km, ¥20.5 billion); Gansu-Zhejiang, the world's first flexible UHV DC line (~2026-27, 2,370 km, 36 TWh/yr, >50% green power) (CCTV/powerchina/tyrb)", "15th Five-Year Plan export corridors connect Gobi anchor deserts to load centers (dfcfw 2026 grid strategy)" ], "summary": { "note": "National west-to-east power transmission scale. Cumulative and capacity figures are exact where a source stated them; annual flows are directional.", "west_east_cumulative_twh": { "note": "Cumulative electricity delivered over West-to-East Power Transmission corridors. Reported 2013-2023: >9 trillion kWh (>9,000 TWh); southern network cumulative ~3.3 trillion kWh (~3,300 TWh) by 2024-07.", "since_2013_2023_twh": 90000, "since_2013_2023_exact": false, "southern_cumulative_twh": 33000, "southern_cumulative_exact": false, "units": "Shown in TWh (1 trillion kWh = 1,000 TWh). Raw values in this dataset are in units of 100 million kWh (0.1 TWh)." }, "transmission_capacity_gw": { "note": "West-to-East Power Transmission capacity (all corridors), GW.", "end_h14_gw": 270, "end_15_5_gw": 340, "note_delta": "~+26% over the 14th Five-Year Plan", "report_year": 2025 }, "uhvdc_clean_energy_2024_twh": { "note": "Cross-region UHV-DC clean electricity delivered in 2024 (raw value in 100 million kWh).", "twh": 4200, "exact": false, "pct_of_uhvdc_outflow": "~60%", "pct_growth_vs_h14_end": "+70%" }, "uhv_network_end_2025": { "note": "UHV AC/DC projects operating at end-2025 (industry stats).", "total": 46, "ac": 22, "dc": 24, "pct_growth_yoy": "+9.5%" }, "uhvdc_line_km": { "h14_end": 28000, "h15_5": 40000 }, "plan_15_5": { "note": "15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) forward plan: capex, transfer network and new-build pipeline. Capex raw values are in 100 million yuan.", "sgcc_capex_bn_rmb": 40000, "sgcc_growth_pct_vs_h14": "+40%", "sgcc_annual_bn_rmb": 8000, "national_capex_bn_rmb": 50000, "national_growth_pct_vs_h14": "+80%", "transfer_capacity_delta": ">30% higher", "new_uhvdc_lines": 15, "west_east_capacity_gw": 420, "west_east_capacity_exact": false, "regional_interconnect_projects": 6, "regional_interconnect_gw": 40, "new_install_gw_per_yr": 200, "non_fossil_consumption_pct": 25 }, "projects_2025": [ { "name": "Longdong-Shandong ±800 kV UHV DC", "name_cn": "陇东-山东", "status": "commissioned 2025, closing out the 14th Five-Year Plan", "capacity_mw": 8000, "distance_km": 915, "investment_bn_rmb": 20.2, "note": "Eastern Gansu (Longdong) to Shandong. China's first export line from a large integrated wind-solar-thermal-storage energy base; the first UHV DC line to enter service at full capacity in a single step; 14.5 GW of paired generation (incl. 10.5 GW wind and solar + 1.05 GW storage); sends 36 TWh a year to Shandong, cutting CO2 by 16 million tonnes and raising Shandong's power-import capacity to 38 GW." }, { "name": "Ningxia-Hunan ±800 kV UHV DC", "name_cn": "宁夏-湖南", "status": "commissioned 2025", "capacity_mw": 8000, "distance_km": null, "investment_bn_rmb": null, "note": "UHV DC line commissioned in 2025, the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan (NEA 2025 year-end closeout list)." }, { "name": "Hami-Chongqing ±800 kV UHV DC", "name_cn": "哈密-重庆", "status": "commissioned 2025", "capacity_mw": 8000, "distance_km": null, "investment_bn_rmb": null, "note": "Xinjiang → Chongqing; commissioned in 2025, the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan (NEA 2025 year-end closeout list)." }, { "name": "Upper Jinsha-Hubei ±800 kV UHV DC", "name_cn": "金上-湖北", "status": "commissioned 2025-12-18", "capacity_mw": 8000, "distance_km": 1900, "investment_bn_rmb": null, "note": "From the upper Jinsha River (Jinshang) hydro base. The first UHV DC line reaching into the heart of the Sichuan-Tibet plateau; the first high-altitude project with split-site cascaded converter stations; the world's highest-altitude UHV DC line; Hubei's second corridor for importing power from outside the province, after Northern Shaanxi-Hubei (NEA 2025-12-22)." } ], "projects_2026": [ { "name": "Northern Shaanxi-Anhui ±800 kV UHV DC", "name_cn": "陕北-安徽", "status": "commissioned 2026-06-30", "capacity_mw": 8000, "distance_km": 1055, "investment_bn_rmb": 20.5, "note": "The first UHV DC line commissioned in the 15th Five-Year Plan period, crossing three provinces: Shaanxi, Henan and Anhui (tyrb 2026-07)." }, { "name": "Gansu-Zhejiang ±800 kV UHV DC", "name_cn": "甘浙直流", "status": "commissioning ~2026-27 (world's first flexible UHV-DC)", "capacity_mw": 8000, "distance_km": 2370, "investment_bn_rmb": null, "note": "The world's first flexible (voltage-source converter) UHV DC transmission project; flexible converter valves at both ends, split one-quarter each among C-EPRI Electric Power Engineering, NR Electric, XJ Electric and China XD Electric; once complete it will send over 36 TWh a year to Zhejiang with a green-power share above 50%, serving exports from the desert mega-bases (CCTV/powerchina)." } ], "planned_corridors": { "note": "15th Five-Year Plan export corridors — each Gobi / desert anchor base maps to an eastern/southern load sink.", "list": [ "Kubuqi → Shanghai (hybrid DC)", "Ulan Buh → Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei", "Badain Jaran → Sichuan", "Tengger → Jiangxi", "Qinghai → Guangxi (hybrid DC)", "Qinghai → Jiangsu", "Southern Xinjiang → Sichuan (fully flexible DC)", "Songliao (Northeast) → North China (fully flexible DC)", "Inner Mongolia → Jiangsu / East China", "Gansu → Shanghai, Gansu → Guangxi, Medog (Tibet) hydropower export" ] } }, "highlights": [ "The west-east buildout is enormous and still accelerating: West-to-East Power Transmission capacity rose from 270 GW at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2020) to ~340 GW by the end of the 14th (2025) — 26% more long-distance corridor in five years.", "Clean energy is increasingly the cargo: in 2024 cross-region UHV-DC shipped ~420 TWh of low-carbon power, ~60% of all UHV-DC outflow and +70% vs the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2020).", "The 15th Five-Year Plan doubles down: State Grid will invest ¥4 trillion (+40%), pushing cross-region transfer capacity more than 30% higher with 15 new UHV-DC lines — West-to-East Power Transmission capacity heading past 420 GW (CEC).", "The 14th Five-Year Plan closed with four UHV-DC lines commissioned in 2025 (Longdong-Shandong, Ningxia-Hunan, Hami-Chongqing, Upper Jinsha-Hubei) + phase II of the Qinghai-Tibet grid interconnection; Northern Shaanxi-Anhui was the 15th Plan's first, live 2026-06.", "Each Gobi anchor desert now has a named transmission corridor — Kubuqi→Shanghai, Ulan Buh→Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Badain Jaran→Sichuan, Tengger→Jiangxi — tying /gobi's buildout to specific eastern load sinks.", "World's first flexible UHV-DC — Gansu-Zhejiang — targets ~2026-27, 2,370 km, sending >36 TWh/yr at >50% green share." ], "caveats": [ "Cumulative West-to-East Power Transmission figures include hydro-dominated southern + northern coal/renewable corridors; annual split not itemized in this source set.", "340 GW / 270 GW are transmission capacity (nameplate corridor), not throughput — realized flows are lower and vary by season.", "15th Five-Year Plan project names/allocations are planned and subject to revision; treated as pipeline, not committed capacity.", "Figures span 2023-2026 releases; treat as scale evidence, not a synchronized single-year ledger.", "UHV network count (46) is Zhiyan Consulting citing 2025 industry stats; the GEM line-level table on /transmission carries 45 operating rows (different counting granularity — line vs project)." ], "generated_at": "2026-10-14T10:17:16" }