State Grid projects help ease poverty
despite staying put for Spring Festival China has encouraged people to stay where they are during the Spring Festival as part of epidemic prevention measures. Many from different walks of life, including students and couriers, celebrate the festival away
State Grid Corp of China, the world’s largest utility, said it has ramped up investments in Southwest China’s Tibet autonomous region and adjacent areas like Qinghai and Sichuan provinces during the last five years to help more local residents out of poverty through its unified power grid.
The utility firm said investments in the region rose by 24 percent on a yearly basis to 91.3 billion yuan ($14.12 billion) during the last five years. Social power consumption in the region rose by 17 percent on an annualized basis during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), the company said.
Tibet and nearby regions including Qinghai and Sichuan provinces have also made great efforts to foster and expand the use of clean energy. State Grid said clean energy accounted for nearly 90 percent of the electricity generated in the region, with installed capacity reaching 48.21 million kilowatts, up 62 percent from the level in 2015. The company said it has transmitted more than 110 billion kilowatthours of electricity translating into economic benefits in excess of 60 billion yuan.
The construction of the power grid program, especially in povertystricken areas in Tibet, has not only boosted power services, but also marked the beginning of an era of a unified power grid in the region, it said.
The main power grid in Tibet has covered 74 county-level areas, compared with five years ago when only 58 counties with 67 percent of the region’s total population had access to main power grid by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-15).
Analysts said the company’s efforts have helped reduce poverty and cleared the decks for clean energy supply to other regions.
Joseph Jacobelli, an independent energy analyst and executive vicepresident for Asia business at Cenfura Ltd, a smart energy services company, said electrification efforts by State Grid as well as China’s other grids are noteworthy.
“The grids have managed to improve access to electric power to around 100 percent of the population today from about 90 percent in the late 1980s, and today the nation has one of the most modern grid networks among the world’s largest power consumers,” he said.
The new challenge today for the grids, according to Jacobelli, is to upgrade and expand the networks so that they can better cater to the massive increase in clean power generation over the next three decades.
“Given the country’s track record there is little doubt that this can be successfully achieved as well, but of course this is not going to be done overnight and there will be some bumps on the way,” he said.
Wei Hanyang, a power market analyst at BloombergNEF, agreed. He said State Grid has been making continuous efforts to ensure power supply in the remote and underpopulated areas of China.
“Tibet has stronger grid connections with other provinces than before, and inside the region, the newly-built grid links for Ngari prefecture will help avoid massive blackouts,” he said.
In 2020, the power grid project in Ngari prefecture, with a total investment of 7.4 billion yuan, was completed and put into operation, ending the region’s isolation from the grid and effectively improved the local power supply.
The project was an extremely difficult one to execute due to the harsh construction environment, dangerous road conditions, poor logistics support and strict environmental protection requirements, the company said. The project, which connects 10 Tibetan counties, will ensure that the power grid of Ngari prefecture is not isolated from the rest of Tibet.
Wei believes State Grid is likely to resort to decentralized renewable energy for tackling access issues in even remoter areas in the future.
China launched a three-year plan in 2018 to upgrade power grids in the country’s poverty-stricken areas and all the tasks were fulfilled by the end of June of last year, according to the National Energy Administration.
A deadly winter weather system that brought record-busting cold to the southern and central United States, knocking out power for millions in oil-rich Texas, blanketed the East Coast in snow on Thursday, disrupting coronavirus vaccinations.
Historic storms have seen Arctic cold envelope much of the US sun belt unfamiliar with such extremes, leaving dozens of dead in its wake and several million Texans told to boil water before consuming it.
A major winter storm impacted an area on Thursday stretching from Virginia to the Northeast, bringing icy buildups and treacherous travel conditions, the National Weather Service said.
Snow fell steadily across New York City throughout the day, forcing the cancellation of about 200 flights and delaying the opening of two COVID19 vaccination sites after the storm disrupted dosage delivery.
“The occasional snowstorm is always good but as we’re getting closer to March it gets a little tiring. I’m ready for it to start being warm again,” said 18-year-old student Kara Dickson.
A weather warning was in effect in New Jersey, where Governor Phil Murphy announced the temporary closure of several vaccination sites.
Across Texas, which has been hardest hit by the cold snap, utility companies were gradually restoring power though more than 250,000 homes and businesses remained without electricity late on Thursday, according to PowerOutage.us.
Misery of water pipes
Even as the lights came back on, some Texas residents were dealing with the misery of water pipes that had burst in the frigid temperatures.
“It was like a waterfall was coming down and it was starting to come out of the bathroom and to the other rooms,” said Birgit Kamps of Houston.
Water pressure problems meant nearly seven million Texans were being advised to boil their water before drinking it or using it for cooking, said Toby Baker, head of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, adding nearly 264,000 people were impacted by nonoperational water systems.
Texas power companies implemented rolling blackouts to avoid grids being overloaded as residents cranked up the heat. The surge in demand came as generating capacity dropped thanks to power stations and wind turbines freezing.
In a local supermarket in Houston, empty shelves were seen on Wednesday in the bottled water section. Bread and canned food were also in short supply as people tried their luck to stockpile in the shop that had managed to stay open, Xinhua News Agency reported.
US President Joe Biden spoke on Thursday evening with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, pledging the federal government would work “handin-hand” with state authorities to offer relief, the White House said.
Biden declared states of emergency and dispatched help to states crippled by the storms and power outages. “I’ve declared states of emergency, authorized the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) to provide generators and supplies, and am ready to fulfill additional requests,” he wrote on Twitter.
The extreme winter weather has killed at least 38 nationwide and nearly 72 percent of the country is covered with snowfall.
SHENYANG — Ma Huichang spent this year’s Spring Festival with other staff and 21 quarantined people at an isolation site for COVID-19 prevention, leaving his wife at home in the same city. But he felt his choice was worth it.
Jan 11 was the eve of the Spring Festival and also the 53rd day of Ma’s work at the quarantine venue. Ma, a government official in Tiexi district, Shenyang city in Northeast China’s Liaoning province, volunteered to join the epidemic prevention work in the district in December after a local COVID-19 outbreak hit the city.
Worried that the isolated people might suffer emotionally on Lunar New Year’s eve, when family members gather and have dinner together as part of celebrations, Ma, head of the isolation site, stayed up until 2 am the next morning.
“Everyone was very cooperative. My sincere thanks to them,” Ma said. In order to make everyone happy, the staff prepared snacks and a dinner, including dumplings, for the people under quarantine.
“We are one family as we spend this Spring Festival,” Ma said. Yet he could not reunite with his wife and son this year as before. Ma is a native of Songyuan city in neighboring Jilin province.
“My wife spent the Spring Festival at home in Shenyang, and my son, who studies in Beijing, did not return. My parents back home were accompanied by my brothers and sisters,” Ma said. He had a virtual chat with his parents, who supported his work.
On Feb 12, Ma received a notice that more than 20 people who had just entered the country would be transferred to the isolation site.
China has encouraged people to stay where they are during the Spring Festival as part of epidemic prevention measures. Many from different walks of life, including students and couriers, stayed put during the festival.
Cao Pengjun, a junior from Central China’s Henan province, who studies at Northeastern University in Shenyang, echoed the “stay-local” drive and spent the festival on the campus.
“Delicious!” Cao said after enjoying a New Year’s Eve dinner with hundreds of others who stayed put. The university rearranged dormitories for students who stayed back. Cao had three new roommates and did not feel lonely.
“As many people stay put, it is still lively and I feel at home,” said Cao, whose parents also stayed in Beijing for the festival.
According to a university official, in previous years, dozens of students spent the Spring Festival in the university. But this year, more than 700 students stayed back, and the university prepared a free buffet as usual, with festive decorations in the dining hall.
Deliverymen are especially busy this Spring Festival, as people who could not return home purchase festival goods online for parents or make special purchases for themselves.
At a station of food delivery platform Meituan in Shenyang, 32 riders are on duty during the festival. Twenty of them are from other places. The station prepared a dinner of takeaway dishes for all staff on duty one day before New Year’s eve when many shops close, according to Ren Kang, who was in charge of the delivery station.
During the festival, community workers in the city helped the elderly who live alone. Guo Donghui, a 78-yearold man in Shenhe district, Shenyang, spent the festival with neighbors in the community.
“My daughter is in Shanghai and did not return in response to the ‘staylocal’ drive. I miss her a bit, but I also had a good festival,” Guo said, expressing his gratitude to community workers who helped him buy commodities, visited him and brought red scrolls ahead of the festival.
He invited three old friends in the community to his home for a gathering on Feb 12. “If it were not for epidemic prevention, I would have invited more.”
When his daughter greeted him on video during the festival, Guo reassured her that all items she had purchased for him were received and that he lacked nothing for the festival.
According to a university official, in previous years, dozens of students spent the Spring Festival in the university. But this year, more than 700 students stayed back, and the university prepared a free buffet as usual, with festive decorations in the dining hall.