A signed article published by the People's Daily Wednesday called for the construction of an extra-high voltage power grid to meet the country's increasing demand for electricity.

The author Liu Zhenya, general manager of the State Grid Corp. of China, said the grid will enable China to better utilize resources, save investment and land and reduce operation and maintenance cost and accidents.

When the grid is completed in 2020, China can save 20 million kilowatts of installed capacity and 20 million tons of coal.

In 2004, Liu said, China's installed capacity reached 440 million kilowatts. The country needs to build additional 500 million kilowatts of installed capacity to meet the increasing demand for electricity, which is estimated to climb to 4.6 trillion kilowatt hours by the year 2020, he said.

China is the world's largest coal consumer and second largest oil and electricity consumer. Coal makes up two-thirds of the country's total energy production and consumption.