World largest underground substation lays foundation in Shanghai

East China's commercial hub Shanghai started Thursday to build a multi-voltage 500-kilovolt underground single-ended substation, which is expected to be the world largest when completed.

This marks the prelude to the State Grid Corporation of China's 67.2 billion yuan (8.4 billion U.S. dollars) investment to Shanghai power grid construction in the next five years, said Liu Zhenya, general manager of the corporation at the launching ceremony of the project.

The substation will be equipped with three 500 kilovolt main transformers and three 220 kilovolt transformers and is planned to be up and running in 2009.

Liu said it will be the first large-scale substation seen in Shanghai's urban area and it is also going to be the world's largest and most advanced substation which is completely underground.

A sculpture park will be built above the substation.

Liu said the substation is built to meet the increasing demand for power of the metropolis, especially in 2010 when the World Exposition is held here.

By then the entire power consumption in Shanghai will reach 125 billion kilowatts-hour with the maximum power load of 26 million kilowatts, the corporation estimates.

Source: Xinhua