After 15 years of construction, the 4197-kilometer-long 750-kilovolt power transmission and transformation project around the Tarim Basin has been completed. This means that the Tarim Basin, my country's largest basin, has been equipped with an electricity "energy ring".
On July 13, on the southern edge of the Taklimakan Desert, the last section of electric wire was pulled by a roaring tractor. It started from Tower 183, crossed the Heruo Railway and National Highway 315, and was finally firmly anchored on Tower 188.
This is currently the largest 750-kilovolt ultra-high voltage transmission ring network in my country. It is another major infrastructure project completed by my country around the Taklimakan Desert after railways and highways.
Viewed from a high altitude, the ultra-high-voltage power ring network winds along the Tarim Basin, winding along the desert edge and on the steep slopes, like stretched "blood vessels"; nearly 10,000 iron towers are stuck into the desert Gobi Desert, which supports the entire line."Skeleton brackets"; nine 750 kV substations are the beating "hearts" that collect wind power, photoelectricity, thermal power, hydropower, adjust the voltages, and then send electricity out.
A single transmission line can supply electricity, why build a ring network?
Xu Yubo, deputy director of the first project management center of Xinjiang Construction Branch of State Grid Corporation of China, explained that the ring network can make the power "blood" flow from multiple paths to avoid "ischemia" caused by single point blockage, and the power guarantee in southern Xinjiang has reached a new level.
The "Energy Ring" hides the code for high-quality development!
Dili Xiati, vice chairman of the CPPCC in Qiemo County, said that the project is a "timely rain" for southern Xinjiang. According to statistics from State Grid Xinjiang Electric Power Co., Ltd., the electricity consumption of the whole society in southern Xinjiang in 2024 will be 73.699 billion kilowatt hours, an increase of about 6 times compared with 2010. This directly reflects the development speed and demand for electricity in southern Xinjiang.
"The previous 220-kilovolt line was like an old camel pulling goods and it was difficult to support the momentum of southern Xinjiang." Dilichati said that if the 220 kV line is a "county-level highway", then the 750 kV line is a "highway", which can realize large-scale power transmission across regions, provinces and even countries.
Companies are looking forward to it. Song Xiaojun, equipment director of Xinjiang Guosheng Qicheng New Energy Co., Ltd. located in Ruoqiang County, said that the first phase of the photovoltaic modules produced by the company can provide 280 jobs, with an annual output value of about 2 billion yuan. The completion of the project can stimulate the construction of more new energy power stations in southern Xinjiang and broaden the market.
The "Energy Ring" was completed by 9 projects in stages, 8 of which have been put into use. In April this year, after the Hotan-Minfeng 750 kV power transmission and transformation project was put into operation, the machine noodle processing shop of Nurgu Zaili Tohtinyazi, a villager in Karanggutagg Village deep in the Kunlun Mountains, no longer had to be afraid of suddenly "sticking" halfway through kneading. The gin in Nuraili Tusuntoheti's cotton wool processing shop could "tap" non-stop.
The national power artery lays the foundation for "power transmission from west to east".
Xin Chaoshan, director of the New Power System Planning and Research Center of the State Grid Xinjiang Economic Research Institute, said that there is a time difference between Xinjiang and the central and eastern regions. At around 16:00, the sun is still shining in southern Xinjiang, and photovoltaic power generation is still at its peak period. Optoelectronics can pass through this "energy ring". Enter the "West-to-East Power Transmission" channel to effectively ensure supply to the whole country.
At present, construction of supporting power supplies for the UHV DC transmission channel from Ruoqiang County in southern Xinjiang to Sichuan and substations for the AC transmission channel to Qinghai have started... According to calculations by the State Grid, if 100 million kilowatts of photovoltaic power are developed in southern Xinjiang and then transmitted to the central and eastern regions, the local thermal power installation can be reduced by 25 million kilowatts.
The construction of large-scale power infrastructure projects is unimaginable.
During the peak period of project construction, more than 3000 workers were on duty at the same time every day, and the cumulative number of participants exceeded 15,000.
Sixty percent of the Tarim Basin is covered by the Taklimakan Desert. The sand here is "living". During project construction, we encountered sand dunes more than 50 meters high. As soon as the road was leveled on our front foot, the wind wrapped in the sand on our back foot came up. The wheels of a large construction vehicle sink into the waist-deep sand nest after being rolled twice. If you are not careful, you may be "swallowed" by quicksand.
Builders "build roads with hard cores": bulldozers push sand waves, and workers follow closely to lay geotextiles, as if putting a layer of tough armor on the sand, then pouring soil and gravel on it, sprinklers spray water mist, and road rollers are repeatedly rolled, and a road that can travel is finally nailed down in the flowing desert.
There is a section of the project located in the mountainous area at the northern foot of the Kunlun Mountains. It has a high altitude and a steep construction site. There is no place to dig the foundation pit and the materials cannot be transported up. The builders had to build cableways and successively transported a total of nearly 3000 tons of tower materials along the cableway to the construction site...
According to reports, after the last section of the "energy ring" has been inspected and eliminated, the overall project is planned to be put into operation in November this year.
Through the vast sand sea, forming oases, the "energy ring" transfers the scattered scenery into a torrent of green electricity, illuminating more new development prospects.
