Govt vows to power up rural electricity grid

China will strengthen efforts to achieve goals in the new round of reconstruction and upgrade of rural power grid, officials of the National Energy Administration told at a media briefing held in Beijing on Friday.

The reconstruction and upgrade of rural power grid is an urgent task in addressing inadequacies of important infrastructure in rural areas and accelerating the equalization of basic public services, and a new round of reconstruction and upgrade of rural power grid will be accomplished within the year to meet the requirements of the central authorities, Qi Chengyuan, deputy head of NEA, said.

Efforts will be made to assign clarified tasks to provincial level with clear requirements, which include goals of the power supply reliability rate and comprehensive voltage qualification rate, he said.

The central government will invest 36.1 billion yuan ($5.26 billion) in 2019, including a central budgetary investment of 14 billion yuan. Local governments and power grid enterprises are also urged to increase investment, he said.

Supervision and inspection will be strengthened, and public service will be enhanced, such as improving power accessibility, to optimize business environment, he said.

Poverty-stricken areas will be a focus, and special support will be given to promote reconstruction and upgrade of rural power grid there, Qi said.

From 2016 to 2017, three major special projects, namely, rural power grid reconstruction and upgrade in central villages of small towns, electricity to motor-pumped well, and three-phase power supply in poor villages, have been implemented and achieved remarkable results.

According to Qi, the rural power grid reconstruction and upgrade in central villages of small towns involves 78,000 villages in 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, benefiting 160 million rural residents.

Electricity to motor-pumped well project involves 1.6 million motor-pumped wells in 17 provinces across the country.

The three-phase power supply in poor villages project has provided power to 33,000 natural villages, benefiting about eight million residents.

Zhu Ming, director of the new energy department of NEA, said the new round of reconstruction and upgrade of rural power grid has improved rural power supply capacity and power supply reliability, and also helps with the goal of "same grid, same price" between rural areas and cities.