CCTV News (News Broadcast): General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized the need to accelerate the construction of a new power system that is clean, low-carbon, safe, abundant, cost-effective, coordinated with supply and demand, and flexible and intelligent. This summer, in the face of the complex situation of intensified fluctuations in the international energy market and frequent extreme high-temperature weather, the power guarantee role of my country's new power system has been further exerted, providing solid support for calmly coping with the peak summer and effectively ensuring people's lives and economic and social development.
This summer, a heat wave swept across the northern hemisphere. The electricity load of the power grid in 25 domestic provinces broke historical records. In Chongqing, known as the "stove city", the number of days with high temperatures above 40°C set a new record for the same period in history.
In the past midsummer season, air-conditioning and refrigeration brought about a surge in electricity demand. In order to ensure residents' electricity consumption, some enterprises and institutions in Chongqing had to implement power rationing measures. This year, although the electricity load has hit new highs, the entire Chongqing has sufficient power supply.
From the once tight electricity consumption to the calm guarantee of supply during peak times, Chongqing is the epitome of my country's continuous improvement of the resilience of energy supply in accordance with the construction and deployment of new power systems. Since the beginning of summer this year, the national electricity load has set new historical records four times in a row, with the highest peak reaching 1.557 billion kilowatts, an increase of about 49 million kilowatts from the historical extreme value in the same period last year. However, the national power supply is stable and orderly, and the power consumption for production and living is effectively guaranteed.
How to make China, the world's largest power supply system, safer, greener and more efficient? General Secretary Xi Jinping has made major strategic arrangements to build a new power system based on ensuring national energy security and achieving sustainable development. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has visited energy bases and energy enterprises, emphasizing the need to vigorously develop wind and solar power generation, coordinate hydropower development and ecological protection, actively develop nuclear power in a safe and orderly manner, and accelerate the construction of a new power system. In the process of promoting carbon peak and carbon neutrality, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized the need to intensify efforts to plan and build a new energy supply and consumption system based on large-scale wind and photovoltaic power bases, supported by clean, efficient, advanced and energy-saving coal power in its surroundings, and supported by stable, safe and reliable ultra-high voltage transmission and transformation lines.
Since the beginning of this year, the construction of new power systems has accelerated, from building clean energy bases to building smart grids to putting energy storage projects into operation. As of now, my country's total installed power generation capacity has exceeded 4 billion kilowatts, exceeding the combined power generation installed capacity of the United States, the European Union, India, Japan, and Russia. The power structure is accelerating green transformation. Non-fossil energy with wind power, photovoltaic, hydropower and nuclear power as the core will be fully developed to provide solid support for ensuring power supply during peak summer.
This summer, artificial intelligence and high-tech industries continue to heat up. The accelerated construction of new power systems has also strongly supported industrial power demand. In July this year, the electricity consumption of the whole society exceeded one trillion kilowatt hours. Among them, the high-tech and equipment manufacturing industry consumed 122 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, a year-on-year growth rate of 8.9%; in the tertiary industry, the electricity consumption of Internet data services such as AI large models grew as high as 40.1%, demonstrating the strong growth potential of new productivity and the digital economy. In the Wuhu data center cluster, a hub node in the Yangtze River Delta, the surge in computing power demand has led to a substantial increase in data center power consumption.
The greener, more efficient and smarter new power system solves the world-class problem of connecting ultra-large-scale new energy to large power grids. At present, the construction of the Panxi UHV project is being stepped up. As the first UHV project started during my country's "15th Five-Year Plan" period, it will be able to transmit 18.2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity every year after completion. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, my country will add 15 new UHV DC channels, and the scale of "West-to-East Power Transmission" will exceed 420 million kilowatts, building a new energy pattern in China of "West-to-East power transmission, North-to-South power supply, water and fire complement each other, and wind and solar complement each other".
By 2030, my country will initially build a new power system, basically form a green and low-carbon power supply pattern, effectively promote the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, and provide more solid support for Chinese-style modernization.
