ABSTRACT
China surpassed the United States in electric power generation and consumption as of 2011. During the First Five-Year Plan, 23 coal-fired thermal power plants and one hydropower station were built. At that time, Chinese economic planners prioritized coal-fired power over hydropower because thermal power plants were cheaper and faster to build. After the 1978 economic reform, the Chinese government started to pay more attention to rural electrification. The opening-up policy effectively encouraged the investments in power generation, mostly in coal-fired power. A downside of this policy was that it led to the construction of numerous small coal-fired power plants. In 1997, China started to order the shutdown of small thermal power generators. The widespread large-scale deployment of air-cooled coal-fired power plants is a rather unique development in China. In 2004, the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) proposed the idea of developing ultra-high-voltage (UHV) transmission technology and using it to strengthen the power grid.
