Electricity production and distribution in China

China's installed hydro capacity in the first half of 2009 was 172GW and constituted about 24% of total power generation capacity. In 2008, hydropower generated 563TWh, which was equivalent to 16% of China's total and 85% of primary electricity generation. As China's potential hydropower capacity (estimates range up to 600GW, but currently the technically exploitable and economically feasible capacity is around 400GW) is only about 25-30% utilized, there remains much space for further hyro development. In comparison, hydro utilization in the U.S. currently is 80% and in Norway, Iceland, and other countries it is at over 90%. Several new units are scheduled to still come online in China in 2009 and the National Development and Reform Commission in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan has set a 300GW target for 2020. Due to China's scarcity of fossil fuels and the government's preference for energy independence, hydropower is an attractive option.

Most of China's hydropower stations are located Central and Southwestern China, in particular in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, where two thirds of China's untapped hyro capacity is located. The West-to-East Transmission program (xidian dongsong), which is a key component of China’s long-term energy strategy, plans to have a grid of UHVDC transmission lines carry bulk loads from 13 designated hydropower bases in Southwest and Western China over several thousand kilometers to the electricity-hungry coastal provinces. These hydropower bases hold 69% of China’s total exploitable capacity and as of 2008, about 180 middle and large-scale dams are currently under construction there.