|
Official: Sabotage of power grid 'rampant'
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-06-15 15:32
Sabotage of China's electricity supply network is "rampant" in some regions,
a top official has said.
National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)
Vice-Minister Zhang Guobao made the comments following the cutting of wires in
Shaanxi Province on Monday.
A sabotage attempt against the local power supply
cut service to 80,000 customers, sparking heightened efforts to safeguard
China's electricity network from future outages.
According to Zhao Zhimin,
director of the Power Supply Section of the Weinan Power Supply Bureau, Monday's
incident took place in Huayin, a city under Weinan's jurisdiction in eastern
Shaanxi in Northwest China.
"Thieves cut off the high-tension wires and one
of the wires fell onto the highway underneath," Zhao said. "The fallen wire was
caught on a passing tanker truck, pulling down seven steel towers."
Traffic
was halted for 9 hours, local police said.
Local power suppliers and police
rushed to make repairs, "but it will at least take 10 to 15 days to complete the
repair work and restore the proper power supply," Zhao said.
Direct economic
losses from the incident have been estimated at 1.3 million yuan
(US$156,000).
Local police are investigating the case but so far there have
been no reports of any arrests.
The power cut has renewed the focus on
China's strained electricity network, with officials working to prevent
blackouts, whether brought about by sabotage or natural causes such as storms or
earthquakes.
Authorized by the State Council, the NDRC instructed power
plants and transmission companies yesterday to work together to take precautions
against possible outages.
"We should learn lessons from the massive blackouts
in Russia, the United States and Canada and avoid power outages," NDRC
Vice-Minister Zhang said yesterday at an urgently-called meeting.
He added
that besides the losses of power from natural causes, sabotage of the power grid
system was "rampant in some regions."
One naturally caused outage occurred
around Spring Festival this year, when the grid in Central China's Hunan
Province was hit by its most severe winter storms since 1954.
In Dingfeng
Village in the province's Xiangtan County, lines were covered by a layer of ice
7 or 8 centimetres thick, causing about 80 per cent of the utility poles and
towers to fall down, resulting in a widespread blackout.
It took about one
month for service to be restored to some areas.
In neighbouring Hubei
Province, freezing temperatures coupled with flooding destroyed nearly all the
electricity facilities in Wufeng County, causing a six-day blackout for 200,000
customers.
Because the threat of further incidents always exists, power
networks for airports, subways, hospitals and other public facilities should be
checked immediately and a standby power supply should be prepared in case
accidents occur, Zhang said.
He also asked local governments and grid and
power companies to set up a rapid-response procedure for accidents and for
exercises to be organized to improve awareness of power grid failures.
Zhang
said that although some parts of the network are worn out and cannot be improved
because of financial considerations, "generally speaking, China's grid networks
work well, but hidden troubles still exist."
|
