Zhejiang: Rural Power Grid Upgrades Help Urban and Rural Areas “Share the Cool Together”

While people in the mountainous areas in western Zhejiang were still asleep, an electric power team quietly assembled in the pre-dawn darkness. They shouldered an important mission: upgrading key power grid lines to ensure equal electricity access between urban and rural areas and safeguard residents’ access to electricity for staying cool in summer.

Among the mountains of Chun’an County, Zhejiang Province, a well-planned power grid upgrade kicked off before dawn. At 4 a.m. on August 14, 55 electric power workers and 5 power supply vehicles arrived at Langfan Village, Lishang Township, under the cover of night. Their target was to renovate the latter section of the 10kV Lishang Line Langjia Branch—a key line that supplies electricity to multiple natural villages and local tea processing plants.

This upgrade was of great significance: replacing wires with larger capacity and installing intelligent switches to enhance the self-healing capability of the mountainous power grid in case of faults. However, the construction section involved electricity use by residents of multiple natural villages and rural industries such as tea processing, making “zero power outage” throughout the operation the biggest challenge.

To this end, State Grid Hangzhou Power Supply Company carefully built a three-dimensional power support grid: 5 low-voltage generator vehicles were connected to key nodes in advance to form a temporary “bridge” for power supply, and the 55 team members were divided into coordination, operation, monitoring, and power support groups to work in synergy.

While most villagers were still fast asleep, the clinking of tools and operation instructions already echoed in the cool pre-dawn air. Inside the safety fence, team members climbed utility poles and laid out wires, their figures moving neatly like silhouettes under the glow of emergency lights. Workers on the poles carefully stripped the joints of old cables, while ground workers closely cooperated to pull the new wires.

“We chose to start work in the early morning precisely to avoid the peak electricity consumption hours of villagers and the critical period of summer tea production,” explained Huang Chenhao, the on-site supervisor, as he kept a close eye on the operation area. As dawn broke, the temperature rose rapidly to 37°C. The team members continued to work hard under the scorching sun; their thick work clothes were soaked with sweat, and their faces under the safety helmets were covered with beads of sweat, yet their movements remained accurate and neat. The power supply vehicles hummed continuously, providing solid support for uninterrupted power supply throughout the day.

From dawn to dusk, after 14 hours of hard work, the new wires and intelligent switches were finally installed. When the generator vehicles stopped humming, the power grid load was seamlessly switched to the new line—villagers’ electricity use in the evening was not disturbed at all. The village remained lit, and the machines in the tea processing plants operated as usual.

Amid the continuous high-temperature test, this reliable guarantee from the power grid ensures that residents and enterprises in remote rural areas of Zhejiang can equally enjoy cool and comfortable summer nights and stable momentum for development, just like their urban counterparts. (By Ren Maopan)