Investment in the power grid increased by 1.8% to $78 billion

Investment in China's power grid has remained relatively stable in recent years, with total investment in national grid construction projects in 2022 reaching 500.6 billion yuan ($78.22 billion), up 1.8 percent year-on-year, according to the China Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute.

The proportion of grid engineering investment to total power investment was 41.0 percent, down 4.6 percent compared to the previous year, according to a report on China's power grid engineering technology released by the institute in Beijing on Friday.

The power grid is a crucial component of the energy sector, serving as the network that connects power generation sources to consumers. A large proportion of electricity consumed in the country is traded across provincial boundaries.

According to Sun Jiami, director of the National Energy Administration's grid department, the power grid is a crucial platform for implementing the optimization and allocation of energy and electrical resources.

The development of grid technology helps meet the continuously growing demand for electricity and addressing global energy transitions, said Sun.

According to the institute, the total substituted electricity volume last year, which has been concentrated in areas such as production and manufacturing, transportation and construction, amounted to about 68.43 billion kilowatt-hours.

This is equivalent to saving the consumption of 20 million tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 60 million tons, it said.

The substitution of electricity refers to the use of electricity to replace the energy consumption modes of burning coal and fuel in the terminal energy consumption segment.