China’s Guangxi Region to Invest $39 Million to Build 500 kV Electrical Substation

China's Guangxi Autonomous region has started to build a 500 kV transformer substation in its Chongzuo City. The project will cost $39 million and take ten months to finish. China Southern Power Grid is the investor.

Construction started on August 2, 2007, in a ranch near Daxin County of Chongzuo City. A set of 750 MVA main transformer will be built, together with two 500 kV transmission lines and seven 220 kV transmission lines.

China Southern Power Grid (Guangdong Province, China) has invested $105.3 million to build five 220kV transformer substations and eight 110kV substations. However, for a city, which is developing a sugar industry and manganese mining, those facilities are far from enough. Guangxi subsidiary of China Southern Power Grid has also invested several millions this year to expand and build 37 power items in Chongzuo.

The 500 kV transformer substation is a key link in the transmission project, helping Guangxi's neighbor, Yunnan Province to transmit electricity to Guangxi.

According to China Southern Power Grid, Chongzuo City will be using 846 MW of electricity by 2010 and the maximum load will amount to 3.73 billion kWh.

Chongzuo City was established in 2003, located in Guangxi's southwest corner. The city has China's largest manganese deposit (149 million tons proven deposit). The city has also China's largest sugar cane field, where one fifth of China's sugar is produced. A total of 50 manganese factories and producing two million tons of sugar consumed 70% of all electricity Chongzuo used in 2006.

In 2007, several manganese projects sponsored by Erachem Comilog (Saint Ghislain, Belgium) and CITIC Dameng Mining Industries, Limited (Nanning City, Guangxi), and several sugar projects invested by Guangxi Xianggui Corporation (Nanning City, Guangxi) and other companies were and will be put into operation, which put more pressure on Chongzuo's power demand.