During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China is coordinating both "hard investment" and "soft construction" to advance major national strategies and key sector security capacity projects, with a total of 109 major projects deployed. In April this year, the Politburo meeting proposed accelerating the construction of six major networks: water networks, new power grids, computing networks, next-generation communication networks, urban underground pipeline networks, and logistics networks. Now halfway through the inaugural year, how are these projects progressing, and how will they reshape our lives?
At the end of July, a reporter visited a construction site at the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River, less than 2 kilometers from the Three Gorges Dam. This is the area where construction of the new Three Gorges navigation channel has first begun. Currently, the open space may show no signs of water transport, but in 10 years, a 6.6-kilometer waterway will be built here, featuring five-stage ship locks with a single chamber length of 280 meters and width of 40 meters—equivalent to the area of two standard soccer fields—with a minimum navigable depth of 8 meters, allowing 10,000-ton vessels to pass through. Gao Peng, Deputy Chief Engineer of China Three Gorges Corporation and Executive Director and Party Secretary of Three Gorges New Channel Company, said: "In terms of logistics alone, it will save the entire society about 16 billion yuan in costs annually, with even more profound impacts on the circulation of elements along the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the adjustment of major productive forces along the river."
During the initial construction of the Three Gorges Project, the double-line ship locks were designed with a throughput capacity of 100 million tons, expected to be reached by 2030. Unexpectedly, cargo throughput at the Three Gorges ship locks exceeded 100 million tons in 2011, reaching the design capacity 19 years ahead of schedule. By 2025, the throughput of the Three Gorges hub had reached 173 million tons, putting immense pressure on safety inspections and maintenance of the locks while also affecting the efficiency of vessel passage. After more than a decade of scientific demonstration, construction of the new Three Gorges water transport channel finally began this year. It is also the first major national landmark project to start during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. Gao Peng added: "Once the new channel is completed, the cargo traffic capacity of the Three Gorges hub will reach 336 million tons per year." More than a month after the project officially commenced in June, the reporter joined the head of the project management department at the pilot excavation area, witnessing the construction fervor firsthand. Shangguan Fang, Deputy Director of the Three Gorges New Channel Project Management Department at Three Gorges New Channel Company, explained: "The pilot excavation area spans 935 meters in length, with a maximum excavation height of 123 meters and an excavation volume of over 8.5 million cubic meters, accounting for about one-twentieth of the total earthwork excavation for the Three Gorges hub new channel project. This area serves as a testing ground, accumulating experience for subsequent main works."
Why conduct tests here when the Three Gorges has already built ship locks? Because building a new channel of this scale alongside the existing Three Gorges hub is unprecedented. In the pilot excavation area, everything from equipment performance and blasting technology to earthwork management is being tested. After taking safety precautions, the reporter recorded a blasting test: workers drilled holes, loaded electronic explosives, and after following standard procedures, detonated remotely. From a distance, despite the considerable volume of the blast, the resulting debris showed minimal displacement, and vehicles outside the blast zone continued normal operations. Blasting requires precision, and the excavated earth and stone will be handled innovatively in an environmentally friendly manner. Shangguan Fang noted: "We have classified all waste materials and planned how to utilize each type. Topsoil from excavation is stored in a dedicated area for later vegetation restoration, while stone debris can be used as aggregate for concrete in the main lock structures or for other comprehensive applications."
The new Three Gorges water transport channel is the largest comprehensive project on the Yangtze River mainline since the Three Gorges Project itself. The reporter observed that despite the project's scale, the construction site remains orderly, thanks to an intelligent construction management platform. Using Beidou satellite navigation and positioning, the location and operation status of all construction vehicles are displayed in real time. Ge Shoujie, Director of the Operations and Management Department at the Excavation Project Department of Sinohydro Bureau 4 Co., Ltd., said: "Real-time scene data is uploaded to the intelligent construction management platform, enabling digital monitoring of the entire production process. Once simultaneous excavation begins, the number of construction vehicles will multiply, with possibly 1,000 to 2,000 vehicles online at once, placing extremely high demands on dispatch management." The new Three Gorges water transport channel project includes not only the new navigation channel at the Three Gorges hub but also the expansion of the Gezhouba navigation capacity. At the construction site, the reporter learned that such a massive project must consider not only the "big" issues of river navigation but also the "small" concerns of aquatic life in the design phase. Wang Xiao, Deputy Director of the Gezhouba Expansion Project Management Department at Three Gorges New Channel Company, explained: "The waters around the Gezhouba hub are a highly ecologically sensitive area, home to the spawning grounds of the Chinese sturgeon and habitats for the finless porpoise. When designing the new two-line ship locks, we chose an outlet that minimizes ecological impact while ensuring optimal navigation safety."
In addition to earthwork, the reporter noted that relocation of 500-kilovolt ultra-high-voltage transmission lines is also underway at the new Three Gorges channel construction site. These high-voltage lines have long transmitted abundant electricity from the Three Gorges Dam to all corners of the country, but the old lines will interfere with the construction of the new locks. Therefore, the first large-scale, long-distance relocation of high-voltage lines in China without interrupting power supply must be completed ahead of schedule.
Major projects are the "stabilizer" of China's macroeconomy and a driver of stable growth during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, strengthening national security and development resilience while practically implementing the "investment in people" concept. In April this year, the Politburo meeting proposed accelerating the construction of six major networks: water networks, new power grids, computing networks, next-generation communication networks, urban underground pipeline networks, and logistics networks. The new power grid is a core platform for building a new power system and new energy system during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, based on the main grid and distribution networks, supplemented by smart microgrids, forming a "main-distribution-micro" coordinated operation system. Li Hui, President of the State Grid Economic and Technological Research Institute, stated: "The fundamental purpose of the new power grid is to ensure safe and reliable power supply, transitioning from 'having electricity' to 'using good electricity' and 'using green electricity.' It also requires resilience, and new digital and intelligent technologies, including AI, may need to be applied to the new grid in the future."
How is the new power grid serving people's production and daily lives in this inaugural year? The reporter visited Zhejiang Province, one of China's most economically active regions, and began by focusing on the Gansu–Zhejiang ±800 kV ultra-high-voltage direct current (UHVDC) transmission project under construction. Pei Chuanxun, Director of the Development Planning Department at State Grid Ningbo Power Supply Company, explained: "The 800 kV line transmits power to Yuezhou in Zhejiang, where it is converted and stepped down before reaching households. Once completed, the Gansu–Zhejiang UHVDC line will deliver 36 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to Zhejiang annually, with over half—more than 20 billion kilowatt-hours—coming from wind and solar energy." During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, a network of UHVDC transmission lines spanning east-west and north-south will form the backbone of the new power grid. Meanwhile, regionally adapted distributed renewable energy sources are increasingly integrated into distribution and microgrids, playing an increasingly important role.
In late July, at a newly completed car parking lot construction site in Ningbo's Qianwan New Area, the reporter watched workers finishing the final framework—installing solar panels. With more distributed photovoltaic (PV) systems connecting to the urban grid, the city's distribution network, traditionally responsible for the "last mile" of power delivery, has become a two-way transmission line, placing new pressure on the urban grid. How can distributed PV power be effectively absorbed without overburdening the grid? The reporter saw a planning simulation platform designed to provide optimal planning advice for integrating distributed PV into the urban grid. Feng Yibin, Director of the Technology Innovation Office at the Economic Research Institute of State Grid Ningbo Power Supply Company, said: "When a new PV system connects, we select the location on the platform. For example, we can compare Plan 1 and Plan 3 to ensure safe and reliable access while maximizing the efficient use of grid line resources. Plan 1 shows significantly lower line losses and is more economical." With scientific planning, by early August, the total installed capacity of distributed PV systems on rooftops of factories and residential buildings in Ningbo had approached 10 million kilowatts, equivalent to the capacity of two large coal-fired power plants. At the Ningbo Power Dispatch and Control Center, the reporter observed that on sunny days, PV had shifted from a "supplementary power source" to a "mainstay" of power supply. However, Ningbo, located on the southeast coast, experiences frequent summer thunderstorms. What happens when a cloud passes overhead? On July 19 this year, just after 11 a.m., dark clouds covered much of Ningbo, bringing thunderstorms, and PV output plummeted sharply. The dispatch center immediately contacted platforms at all levels, and provincial and municipal power resources quickly stepped in to fill the gap.
Beyond UHVDC main lines and urban distribution networks, the reporter saw that smaller microgrids are being built in various communities and factories in Ningbo. By precisely understanding the power equipment and user habits within the network, virtual power plants are being established, relying on adjusting user behavior to achieve smarter and more efficient power use. For every enterprise and household, the greatest expectation from the power supply is stability—even in unexpected situations, power should not be cut off. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, how can we make the power grid more resilient? The reporter visited the final stop in Ningbo—the "command center" of the grid's feeder automation system. Zhang Jiming, an expert in grid automation technology, was reviewing with colleagues the restoration of power to users after two typhoons struck Ningbo in July this year. The system automatically locates and isolates faults, restoring power to the vast majority of affected users within two minutes, sometimes even seconds, but Zhang Jiming was still not satisfied. Zhang Jiming, Head of the Automation Operations and Maintenance Team at the Dispatch and Control Center of State Grid Ningbo Yinzhou District Power Supply Company, said: "Many high-tech enterprises are extremely sensitive to power outages. A production line shutdown can lead to significant product losses. In the coming years, we will build on existing research to monitor and detect early minor symptoms, using AI technology to address early warning issues, aiming for a more reliable grid that never fails."
During the research process, the reporter personally experienced that in the inaugural year, increasing attention is being paid to the small details behind major projects: large projects are broken down into small units, recording data from every blast and considering the impact of lock currents on fish; while building large power grids, microgrids are also being deployed, and small rooftop solar panels in cities can aggregate significant energy. It is precisely this focus on every small issue and effort on every detail that ensures the steady progress of each major project, building a solid foundation for Chinese modernization.
Comments