According to Qinghai Electric Co., part of China’s national power grid, the Qinghai-Tibet Joint Power Grid, nicknamed “Power in the Sky,” has delivered over 30 billion kilowatts to the Tibet region in the last five years. 

 “In the last five years, ‘Power in the Sky’ has survived sandstorms, extreme cold, and met all operating standards and demands, it not only provided reliable power to Tibet, it also played an active role in preserving the ecological environment in the Qinghai plateau.” Staff at the Qinghai Electric Co., said.

The employee of the power company said that ever since the Qinghai-Tibet Joint Power Grid went into operation, power demand in all of Tibet has grown rapidly. As of February 22nd, 3 billion kilowatts of energy was delivered, while the mid-Tibet Power Grid delivered 332 million kilowatts to Qinghai, acting as a crucial inter-province energy junction.

The Qinghai-Tibet Joint Power Grid has improved its direct current power delivery capacity from 120 megawatts to 300 megawatts, which is 45% of the total capacity for the mid-Tibet Power Grid. The power transmission capacity has also grown from 2.1 million kilowatts to the current 4.2 million kilowatts.

The Qinghai-Tibet Joint Power Grid is one of the major development projects in western China, it is the world’s tallest direct current power project, as well as the world’s longest-distance power transmission project under frozen soil. 

The project began construction in July of 2010 and was put into a test run by December of 2011, which not only ended the era of Tibet having only one power grid, it also solved Tibet’s power supply problems in winter, and significantly alleviated the power distribution issues across the Qinghai-Tibet region.