China strives for full rural power coverage within five years

Original headline: China strives to basically achieve full rural power coverage by 2020

The National Energy Administration released the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating Energy Development and Construction in Poverty-Stricken Areas to Advance Poverty Alleviation" on the 6th. The Opinions propose that by 2020, full rural power coverage should be basically achieved; and the construction of photovoltaic poverty alleviation projects for 2 million registered poor households should be completed.

In terms of rural power grid upgrading and transformation, the Opinions propose accelerating the process of connecting isolated-grid county towns to the grid, and accelerating the extension of power grids to townships and villages. All county towns in Tibet and the Tibetan areas of Qinghai shall be connected to the grid or have renewable energy local power grids built, the power grids in farming and pastoral areas shall be basically fully covered, and a complete regional rural power grid reaching townships and villages shall be built.

In terms of photovoltaic poverty alleviation, the Opinions propose carrying out photovoltaic poverty alleviation work in 35,700 registered poor villages in 451 poverty-stricken counties across 15 provinces (regions) with good sunlight conditions (average annual utilization hours greater than 1,100 hours). By 2020, the goal is to achieve an average income increase of more than 3,000 yuan per household for 2 million registered poor households.

In terms of energy development and construction, the Opinions propose that central budget investment arrangements for rural power grid transformation shall be tilted toward old revolutionary base areas, ethnic minority areas, border areas, and contiguous poverty-stricken areas. (Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Weiwei)