The opening ceremony of Geshang (Gezhouba-Shanghai) DC Power Transmission Line rehabilitation project of State Grid Corporation of China has been held simultaneously in Fengjing, Shanghai and Jingmen, Hubei on Dec. 30, 2008.

Geshang DC Power Transmission Line is China's first ¡À500 KV UHV DC transmission line project with a transmission capacity of 1200MW and a total length of 1,045 km. The project was put into operation in 1990, connecting East China Grid and Central China Grid. It plays an important role in cross-region power transmission for many years. Due to the limitation of power transmission capacity, it can not meet the current demand for power transmission.

With a total length of 976 km, the rehabilitation of the project starts at Jingmen, Hubei and ends at Fengjing, Shanghai, passing five provinces or municipalities, namely, Hubei, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shanghai. The designed transmission capacity is 3000MW. It is said that two new converter stations will be built, with one at Jingmen and the other at Huxi. The project will be put into operation in 2010 with a new earthed pole at the sending end under construction and the other one at the receiving end being rebuilt. 

The mature and advanced DC power transmission technology will be applied to this project. For example, the present corridor will be used to rebuild the 914km long transmission line to improve the line utilization rate by 5 times and save the land of 60.8 square kilometers. The amount of 3000MW clean energy will be transmitted to Shanghai, which means about 1.50 million tons of standard coal can be saved each year and the emission of sulfide in big cities can be reduced by a large margin. Transmission loss can also be reduced. This project is a good example of energy-saving and environment-friendly construction.

It is reported that the project can promote hydro and thermal power compensation between Central China Grid and East China Grid to further increase the power transmission capacity of Three Gorges and Sichuan Hydro Power, and expand power transmission volume from Central China Grid to East China Grid, thus alleviate the pressure on East China Grid and guarantee power supply for the economic and social development of Shanghai. Clean energy transmitted from Three Gorges and Sichuan will be fully utilized, which means the resource advantage of Western China can be transformed into economic advantage to speed up the economic development of Western China.