China Completes Shaanbei–Anhui ±800kV UHVDC Link

State Grid Corporation of China announced on June 30, 2026, that the Shaanbei–Anhui ±800kV Ultra-High Voltage Direct Current (UHVDC) transmission project has been put into operation. The link is the first UHVDC project to be commissioned during China's 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026–2030) and forms part of the country's ongoing West-East Power Transmission strategy.

The line runs from the Baotashan converter station in Yan'an, Shaanxi province, through Henan province, to the Hezhou converter station in Hefei, Anhui province, covering a route length of just over 1,000 kilometres. The project operates at a rated voltage of ±800kV and a rated capacity of 8,000 MW.

At the sending end, the project is supported by 11,000 MW of connected renewable generation, while the receiving end links into Anhui's load centre via a 500kV AC system. Once fully ramped up, the link is expected to deliver more than 36 billion kWh of electricity to Anhui each year, with renewable sources accounting for over half of that output. State Grid estimates the project will displace 5.5 million tonnes of coal consumption and cut carbon dioxide emissions by more than 14 million tonnes annually. Delivered power will reach Anhui load centres including Anqing and Tongling via eight distribution lines.

State Grid highlighted the project's DC control and protection system as achieving full domestic localisation, from chip design through to software, for the first time on a Chinese UHVDC scheme. Major equipment for the project was sourced from domestic suppliers; earlier in the project's construction phase, Wuxi Sun.King Power Capacitor Co., a subsidiary of Sun.King Technology, secured a contract to supply capacitors for the Baotashan converter station, with an order totalling 2.9121 million kvar.

Construction on the Shaanbei–Anhui project began on March 15, 2024, alongside the Yuexi pumped-storage plant in Anhui, with both projects part of a combined investment package. With the Shaanbei–Anhui line now in service, State Grid says it has built and commissioned 43 ultra-high-voltage projects in total — 22 AC and 21 DC — with cross-regional transmission capacity exceeding 380 million kW across China's East, North, Central and Southwest grid networks.

The project follows other recent Chinese UHVDC milestones, including the ±800kV Hami–Chongqing project, which began transmitting power in mid-2025, and the ±800kV Gansu–Zhejiang link, billed as the world's first UHVDC project using voltage source converter (VSC) technology, which remains under construction.