'Powerful' youth teams light up rural lives

Zhang Luosi runs a pig farm at Dasen village of Qinggang urban subdistrict in Bishan district of Chongqing municipality.

Though the summer heat is scorching, the 67 pigs at his farm enjoy the cool breeze generated by electric fans while feeding leisurely.

This is thanks to a power line relocation done on July 22 by State Grid Chongqing Bishan Power Supply Co, which has ensured sufficient electricity supply to the farm.

Days earlier, the brick factory in Dasen had built a steel canopy near a second-floor window that was barely 1.3 meters away from the power line.

When a thunderstorm caused a line to trip, Zhang became worried even though it was quickly restored.

Zhang repeatedly urged officials at the brick factory to remove the canopy, but to no avail.

"The sweltering heat means our pigs need the fans to cool themselves. If they die from the excessive heat, it would be a great loss for us," Zhang said.

With no other way out, he reached out to staff members of State Grid Chongqing Bishan Power Supply Co for help.

On being apprised of the situation, the power workers proposed to reroute the 0.4 kilovolt low-voltage line of the 10 kV Qingchen Line's No 2 transformer substation in Zhongxingchang town, bypassing the brick factory and ensuring the safety of power supply to the pig farm.

Fourteen young employees from the Qinggang Power Supply Substation and three from the live-line working team formed a youth task force to execute the task.

After adequate preparation, the youth task force gathered at the site at 7:30 am on July 22 with all the required materials and tools.

Because of the heat and to avoid disrupting power supply to clients along the line, the team members decided to combine live-line work with low-voltage operations.

At 7:55 am when the live-line work was finished, 14 team members split into two groups to conduct low-voltage operations simultaneously.

By 1:18 pm, after more than five hours of continuous work, the line relocation was successfully completed, and the pig farm's power supply was restored, much to the happiness of Zhang.

In order to ensure reliable power supply to livestock farmers, State Grid Bishan Power Supply Co has for many years organized youth task forces to conduct safety inspections, aiding livestock farmers during peak power-use periods in summer, said Zhao Yi, a member of the task force.

Zhao said local power grid workers have visited more than 70 farms so far this summer, resolved 13 power issues and distributed more than 1,200 power safety manuals.

"As young task force members, we have contributed our bit to rural growth and farmers' prosperity through our services," Zhao added.