The State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC), the world's leading power utility company, commenced construction officially on three ultra-high voltage (UHV) power transmission lines, announced Chairman Liu Zhenya at a construction kick-off meeting held in Beijing on November 4.

A total of 68.3 billion yuan ($11.2 billion) would be invested into the three UHV transmission lines, totaling 4,740 km long, which are expected to commence operation in 2016.

Two 1,000KV UHV AC power transmission lines, one connecting Huainan in Anhui province, Nanjing in Jiangsu province and Shanghai, and another from Xilingol League, Inner Mongolia to Shandong, have 12 GW and 15 GW of substation/converter capacity, respectively.

Besides, one 800KV UHV DC power transmission line, connecting eastern Ningxia with Zhejiang province, has substation/converter capacity of 16 GW.

Up to now, the State Grid has built four UHV DC and two UHV AC power transmission lines, totaling 160 GW in substation/converter capacity.

To fight pollution, the Chinese government has planned to invest 200 billion yuan to build 12 key power transmission lines by 2017, aiming to reduce coal consumption by 200 million tonnes and cut sulfur dioxide emission by 960,000 tonnes each year.