State Grid Longde: Reliable power supply brings plateau hairy crabs to the Mid-Autumn table

"Aerator lines and water quality monitoring equipment have to be checked carefully — during the fattening period everything in the greenhouses runs at full capacity around the clock, and we cannot afford a single slip-up with the power." On Sept 20, at the Chinese hairy crab breeding base at Gaoping Reservoir in Liancai town, Longde county, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, Zhu Zhongning of the State Grid Longde County Power Supply Company and his colleague Wang Xinyuan inspected the base's electrical facilities for hazards and making sure the crabs have steady power supply through the crab fattening period.

The Gaoping Reservoir Chinese Hairy Crab Breeding Base is Longde county's first crab farming project. Relying on the reservoir's open waters and clean water, the base released 5,000 kilograms of quality crab seed and makes full use of the natural feed found there — native aquatic plants and plankton — following a near-natural green breeding model.

Once the crabs mature, they are moved into the "fish-vegetable symbiosis" smart greenhouses, where intelligent oxygenation, real-time water quality monitoring, and fattening on pollution-free corn produce finished crabs with full roe and sweet, fresh meat. The result is an integrated chain running from ecological reservoir breeding to smart greenhouse fattening and sorting for sale. This batch of plateau ecological crabs will reach the market before the Mid-Autumn Festival, with an estimated total output of 75,000 kg and sales of around 1.8 million yuan ($268,000).

Longde county sits on the western slopes of the Liupanshan Mountains, at a high average elevation and with low temperatures, so crab farming places unusually heavy demands on power supply reliability. The smart oxygenation systems, real-time water quality monitors, and temperature control systems in the "fish-vegetable symbiosis" greenhouses all need power supply 24 hours a day. A single outage stops the aerators and cuts off monitoring; within a short time, the crabs suffocate, hitting both yield and quality.

"Electricity is the lifeblood of the greenhouse," said the head of the breeding base. "The aerators cannot stop for even a moment. Only with a stable power supply can we fatten crabs with confidence."

From the outset, the State Grid Longde County Power Supply Company reached out to Liancai town and the breeding enterprise, learned what the base would need before work started, and designed a power supply plan around the scale of the operation and its equipment load. It opened a fast-track green channel for agricultural power applications, cut red tape from the installation process, and completed grid connection quickly, so the breeding equipment was running smoothly when the crab seed went in. "When we decided to try raising crabs at high altitude, our biggest worry was whether power supply could be guaranteed," said the head of the enterprise. "The power supply company came out to make a plan with us in advance, and the connection went faster than we expected — that gave us real confidence."

To keep the breeding area supplied, staff members from the power supply station make regular visits to the smart greenhouses to check the electrical safety of critical equipment such as the oxygenation and water quality monitoring systems, spotting and fixing hazards as they arise. On Aug 13, the base suffered a sudden power outage: the aerators stopped, water temperature began to fall, and crab fattening was at risk. Staff from the station arrived within 20 minutes and traced the fault to damaged insulation on a water pump cable — moisture had seeped in, causing a short circuit that tripped the switch. The crew sealed the leak, replaced the damaged cable, and closed the switch again to restore power supply, sparing the enterprise a costly loss.

The base is now in the critical catching and fattening window, with greenhouse equipment running at full capacity. More than 50,000 kg of crabs have finished fattening and are being shipped to markets across the country.

The State Grid Longde has set up a dedicated service mechanism for local specialty industries, sending staff on regular patrols of the base's supply facilities, giving on-site guidance on safe operating practices, and clearing electricity risks as soon as they appear — a dependable power supply that lets the plateau crabs "crawl" onto the Mid-Autumn dinner table.