On October 29, 2026, the Xinjiang section of the third 750 kV transmission line project from Hami to Dunhuang officially started construction, and another AC transmission channel connecting Xinjiang to the northwest main grid entered the substantive construction stage.

New channel breaks through the bottleneck of Xinjiang power transmission and delivery

This project is a key project of the National Electric Power Flexible Mutual Aid Project. The line starts from the 750 kV substation in Hami and ends at the border of Xinjiang and Gansu provinces, passing through Yizhou District of Hami City and Xinxing City of the 13th Division of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. The Xinjiang section will build a new single circuit line of 228.093 kilometers and install 488 iron towers. At present, Xinjiang mainly relies on two 750 kV AC lines, Hami Dunhuang double circuit and Yandun Shazhou double circuit, to connect with the northwest main network, and the cross regional exchange capacity is close to saturation.

According to estimates, the demand for electricity transmission from Xinjiang will increase to 15 million kilowatts by 2027, and the existing channel transmission capacity is no longer sufficient to meet the development needs of large-scale transmission of new energy. After the completion of the project, the utilization rate of new energy in Xinjiang can be increased by 0.8%, and the annual amount of abandoned electricity can be reduced by 2.5 billion kilowatt hours. At the same time, the utilization rate of new energy in Gansu can be increased by 0.4%, and the annual amount of abandoned electricity can be reduced by 700 million kilowatt hours. The space for flexible inter regional power mutual assistance will be greatly expanded.

Ecological low disturbance construction adapted to sensitive areas

The more crossings the entire project has, the greater the difficulty of safety control, requiring crossing 26 power lines of 110 kV and above, 2 highways, 3 railways, and 2 provincial roads. The construction unit coordinated the entire construction plan in advance, combined with the power grid outage plan to arrange segmented crossing operations, and accumulated 11 secondary operation risks of voltage drop, greatly improving the redundancy of construction safety.

The route crosses the national key prevention area for soil erosion on the northern slope of Tianshan Mountains. During the design phase, ecologically sensitive areas were considered as hard constraints, and the length of the route within the key prevention area for soil erosion was optimized and reduced from 30 kilometers to 17 kilometers, with a reduction of 43.3%. During the construction process, a cableway and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) low disturbance construction system will be set up to minimize damage to surface vegetation. Throughout the entire process, guide ropes will be deployed using UAVs. Keywords: kV line, power transmission and transformation

At present, the transmission of electricity from Xinjiang has formed a pattern of two exchanges and three straight lines, with a cross regional transmission capacity of 33 million kilowatts, covering 23 provinces, regions and municipalities across the country. With the commissioning of the Ruoqiang Lingyang 750 kV transmission and transformation project in 2027, Xinjiang will form a layout of three exchanges and three straight transmission channels, and the cross regional energy allocation capacity will reach a new level.Editor/Cheng Liting