(Feb 3): China’s grid spending hit a record last year and is set to rise steadily through 2030, underscoring Beijing’s push to ease transmission bottlenecks.
Grid investment climbed 5% to 639.5 billion yuan in 2025, according to data from the China Electricity Council. Spending on new-generation power capacity, by contrast, has faced constraints from a solar slowdown, official data for the first 11 months of the year showed.
China’s dominant state-owned grid operators — the State Grid Corp of China and China Southern Power Grid Co — have steadily lifted their spending in recent years. Their combined budgets are set to reach nearly one trillion yuan this year and grow further through the end of the decade.
Their outlay will support Beijing’s push to expand the country’s ultra-high-voltage (UHV) grid, which is set to link more than 420GW of capacity by 2030 under the West-to-East power-delivery programme. The spending will also fund so-called smart mini-grids and distribution networks to integrate about 900GW of small, scattered plants.
So far, China has 45 UHV lines in operation. A push by policymakers to meet artificial intelligence-driven growth in power demand could spur approvals for a further seven to nine such projects this year, according to brokerage Galaxy Securities Co.
The expansion to date has benefited local electric-equipment makers amid a global shortage of large transformers. Stocks in the sector have attracted interest on rising demand tied to AI data centre buildouts.
See also: Taiwan may push back timeline to meet green energy goal after missing it last year
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