On October 26, 2026, the construction site machines of Mengshan Converter Station in Lanling County, Linyi City, Shandong Province were officially launched, marking the beginning of the main construction of the Lu Su Back to Back Interconnection Project. This is also the first time that the power grids of Shandong and Jiangsu, two major consumer provinces, have achieved direct physical connection.

Direct inter provincial connectivity channels fill historical gaps

Shandong and Jiangsu, as the top economic and consumer provinces in China, have not had direct power grid connections for a long time, and their inter provincial power mutual assistance capabilities have always been limited. The potential for cross regional energy allocation has not been fully unleashed. The newly built Mengshan converter station has a conversion capacity of 3 million kilowatts, and a supporting 500 kV line will be built to connect the Yaohu substation in Jiangsu and the Lanling substation in Shandong, completely ending the history of no direct interconnection channel between the two power grids of Shandong and Jiangsu.

Since the end of 2025, six back-to-back projects including Chongqing Guizhou Hunan Guangdong Shandong Jiangsu have been approved nationwide, and the construction of back-to-back interconnection projects across provincial power grids has significantly accelerated. This type of project can enable two independent power grids to achieve flexible support while maintaining the relative independence of their respective operating systems, greatly improving the operational flexibility of the entire regional power system and laying a hardware foundation for the subsequent operation of the unified national power market.

High standard construction fully guarantees the landing of nodes

In order to promote the smooth start of the project, State Grid Shandong Electric Power has established a special working team to focus on key links such as handling property rights certificates and coordinating with local authorities. They have successfully obtained the first preliminary land use procedures for Shandong Power Grid and completed all pre-approval processes before the official start of construction. For the core construction of the Mengshan converter station, the technical team has conducted multiple rounds of special demonstrations and system optimizations around the seismic resistance of the foundation treatment structure, and formulated targeted construction guarantee measures.

The project team is synchronously implementing a full lifecycle management plan for buildings and equipment, establishing a full process control mechanism from equipment manufacturing to on-site testing and debugging, to ensure that the project quality, progress, and safety meet all standards. During the construction process, relevant elements were integrated into the exterior design of the main control building, taking into account the regional characteristics of the Red Yimeng area. The five new technologies of electricity and green, energy-saving, and low-carbon technologies were comprehensively promoted to create a high-quality benchmark project. Keywords: power grid engineering, interconnection engineering

The entire Lu Su Back to Back Interconnection Project is planned to be completed and put into operation in December 2027. After being put into operation, it will significantly improve the interconnection level of the power grids in the two provinces of Lu Su and the North and East China regions, greatly enhance the flexible mutual assistance and emergency support capabilities of power between provinces, and provide new support for the reliable supply of electricity in the eastern coastal economic belt.Editor/Cheng Liting