On April 4, the State Grid Hubei Electric Power Co., Ltd. was informed that the North Shaanxi-Hubei (+800 kv) UHVDC transmission project had recently been formally approved by the State Development and Reform Commission, with a static investment of 17.841 billion yuan, which would increase the power supply capacity of the Hubei Power Grid by 8 million kW. So far, the number of UHV transmission channels directly transmitting electricity to our province has increased to two.

At the end of 2018, the State Energy Administration issued the Notice on Accelerating the Planning and Construction of a Batch of Key Power Transmission and Transfer Projects. Five UHVDC transmission lines and seven UHV AC transmission lines are planned and constructed. The construction period of the project is 2 to 3 years. The UHVDC transmission project in northern Shaanxi-Hubei is one of the 12 UHV projects planned. Up to now, 21 UHV projects have been built in China, with a total investment of more than 400 billion yuan.

Hubei is short of energy resources, coal reserves are less than 1% of the country, and 98% of coal for power generation needs to be purchased from other provinces. After the basic development of hydropower resources, 60% of the province's electricity consumption relies on thermal power, which is constrained by railway transport capacity, and the supply of electricity and coal is often tight. However, the environmental carrying capacity of Hubei is obviously insufficient, and the cost of transporting coal from other places to Hubei is relatively high. At the same time, it is inevitable to speed up the construction of UHV cross-regional transmission projects, facing the target assessment of reducing energy consumption per unit GDP.

State Grid Hubei Electric Power Co., Ltd. said that the construction of the project will build a "highway" for the "transmission of electricity from north to south" to realize direct power supply to the load center in the central region of Northwest Coal and Electric Power Base, which not only solves the urgent need of burning "coal" in Hubei, but also promotes resource development and poverty alleviation in the old revolutionary areas of northern Shaanxi.

According to the report issued by Greenpeace International, UHV can reduce PM2.5, 17 and 450 tons of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides per 100 million kilowatt-hour power transmission. According to this calculation, it will help Hubei to reduce PM2.5 and PM10 by about 16,000 tons annually, and reduce SO2 and NOX by about 310,000 tons. Moreover, the transmission cost of UHV project is much lower than that of coal transportation, which is conducive to reducing the cost of electricity consumption in Hubei Province.