Briefly

Yuan strengthens against greenback

The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, strengthened 65 pips to 7.1461 against the US dollar on Thursday, said the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.

Lasers clear tree hazards for grid safety

Chinese power workers are making innovations to bolster grid safety. In Xuzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, local power employees for the first time utilized laser technology to clear tree hazards. While patrolling a 110 kilovolt line, staff members from State Grid Xuzhou found that trees beneath the high-voltage conductors had grown dangerously tall, posing short-circuit hazards. They decided to use a laser foreign-object removal device to precisely slice the branches some 50 meters away. The whole process took some 30 minutes. Previously, clearing a tree hazard required a disruptive power outage and a large crew.

Xinhua - China Daily