An aerial view of the Tengger Desert new energy base in Zhongwei, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, on Nov 10, 2024. Solar panels stretch across undulating dunes in the Tengger Desert, continuously generating green power. YUAN HONGYAN/FOR CHINA DAILY
For decades, China's energy heart has beaten in the west, while its industrial pulse has flourished in the east.
Bridging this geographical divide, which spans thousands of kilometers, has become the ultimate test of the country's carbon peak and neutrality ambitions.
A new policy roadmap released by top economic regulators aims to bridge this chasm by expanding its "west-to-east" power transmission capacity to over 420 gigawatts by 2030, as the world's second-largest economy advances the strategic modernization of its electrical grid and builds a new power system that is clean, secure and efficient.
China is set to scale up its cross-country power transmission capacity, while nonfossil fuel sources will account for roughly 30 percent of its total electricity generation. This will be supported by a grid capable of integrating 900 GW of distributed solar and wind power, said the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration.
This expansion serves as a critical "super-highway" for the Gobi Desert's massive renewable energy bases, ensuring green power reaches hubs like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, Guangdong province, without being wasted.
West-to-east transmission capacity in China was 340 GW in 2025, meeting approximately 23 percent of the nation's peak demand last year, said the NEA.
China's grid has already evolved into the world's largest and most advanced network in terms of transmission capacity, voltage levels and integration of renewables.
Beyond the physical wires, the 2030 plan emphasizes interprovincial mutual aid, with an additional 40 GW of capacity dedicated to sharing power between provinces during weather-driven shortages or peak loads.
The government also plans to support the rollout of over 40 million electric vehicle charging units, integrating the transport sector into the broader energy ecosystem.
The surge in China's power demand is being driven by a dual-track acceleration in the digital and green economies: the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure and the massive scale-up of renewable energy integration.
As AI evolves, the proliferation of hyperscale data centers, which require significantly more power than traditional servers for intensive training and inference, is projected to nearly quadruple electricity consumption in the sector over the next decade, said the International Energy Agency.
Simultaneously, the country's aggressive push for decarbonization has led to record-breaking additions of solar and wind capacity, necessitating unprecedented investment in utilities to manage the intermittency of these sources.
Workers conduct equipment inspections at the world's first hybrid cascaded ultrahigh voltage direct current converter station in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, on Nov 20. The station is a key project of China's "west-to-east" power transmission strategy. SHI JUN/FOR CHINA DAILY
UBS raised its outlook for China's annual electricity demand growth to 8 percent for the 2028-30 period in a recently released report on energy transition, up from a previous estimate of 4 percent, citing a reevaluation of structural growth drivers for the increase.
To keep pace with this demand, domestic grid operators are stepping up efforts to modernize the national network with ultrahigh voltage "power highways" and digital smart grids, transforming the utility system into a high-tech backbone capable of supporting both high-density computing and a transition toward a net-zero future.
State Grid Corporation of China said its fixed-asset investment rose to a record high of over 650 billion yuan ($93.2 billion) in 2025. This brings total investment during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) to more than 2.85 trillion yuan, it said.
The nation's primary utility has been escalating its investment in UHV projects to enable efficient, long-distance power transfer to boost the nation's capacity to efficiently optimize and distribute renewable energy resources across vast geographical areas.
China Southern Power Grid said its "west-to-east" power transmission volume reached a record 261.5 billion kilowatt-hours in 2025, an increase of 31 billion kWh compared to 2020 levels.
Throughout the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the utility's cross-regional channels delivered a cumulative 1.14 trillion kWh of electricity, it said.
The country's extensive UHV grid has profoundly reshaped its energy landscape, said Ye Xiaoning, a senior engineer at the new energy department of the State Grid Energy Research Institute.
China's utilization of renewable energy has either reached or exceeded advanced international levels, with a utilization rate of 97.6 percent, surpassing 95 percent for six consecutive years since 2018, comparable to the levels seen in developed countries such as Germany, Ye said.
Industry experts believe that by moving from a static network to an AI-enabled, highly reactive platform, China is building the infrastructure necessary to support a fully decarbonized economy, a strategic pivot intended to cement China's position as the global standard-setter for the next generation of power.
China's power grid is undergoing a fundamental transformation, shifting from a traditional one-way transmission model toward a sophisticated, multidirectional hybrid structure, said Zhang Lin, director of planning and development at the China Electricity Council.
Zhang said that strengthening the synergy between the backbone grid, local distribution networks and microgrids is now a strategic necessity.
This deeper integration is essential to support emerging energy business models and ensure that renewable energy providers can participate on a level playing field within the national power market, she said.
China currently holds the world record for the longest safety run of a major power grid and operates at the highest voltage levels globally, including its signature UHV DC lines that are capable of transporting electricity across thousands of kilometers with minimal energy loss — a feat comparable to sending power from New York to Los Angeles.
While the domestic focus is on energy security and decarbonization, the move also solidifies China's role as the global standard-setter for grid technology.
From high-end transformers to sophisticated dispatching software, Chinese State-owned enterprises like the State Grid Corporation of China and China Southern Power Grid are also increasingly exporting these technologies to emerging markets.
However, the transition is not without hurdles. Integrating such high proportions of volatile renewable energy requires massive investments in long-duration energy storage and AI-powered demand-side response.
To accommodate this shifting energy landscape, grid operators are evolving from traditional infrastructure providers into high-tech digital managers by embedding AI and specialized operating systems into the heart of the smart grid.
Major utilities are investing heavily in digitalized platforms to manage the massive streams of real-time data generated by millions of sensors and internet of things devices.
For instance, China Southern Power Grid has pioneered the Dianhong IoT operating system. Developed in collaboration with open-source ecosystems, this system creates a unified "digital soul" for power equipment, breaking down data silos across the entire energy chain.
The implementation of systems like Dianhong is fundamentally transforming maintenance and efficiency. Tasks that once required four hours of manual commissioning can now be completed remotely in just 30 minutes, while equipment upgrades have been slashed from three hours to merely 20 minutes.
This shift not only accelerates the grid's responsiveness, but also significantly reduces safety risks for front-line employees by minimizing the need for hazardous on-site visits.
On the other hand, by leveraging Beidou satellites for millimeter-level tower displacement detection and drones for automated patrolling, the grid can now identify wildfires or hardware faults in real time.
This level of precision — locating faults within 300 meters over a 30-kilometer range — is essential for maintaining stability as AI-driven demand and intermittent renewable energy become the new norm, the company said.
Ultimately, the goal is to build an expansive industrial ecosystem, it said.
Data from China Southern Power Grid show that the Dianhong ecosystem has expanded to include over 500 supply chain manufacturers. These partners are currently adapting the operating system to more than 3,000 different types of terminals, ranging from smart meters to industrial sensors.
