Daily Times

Matiari-Lahore High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission project funded, constructed and operated by the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework is the first project to adopt ?660 kilovolt direct current technology outside China with complete Chinese intellectual property rights, said Shan Shewu, chairman of China Electric Power Technology and Equipment Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of SGCC. The converter transformers, one of the most important components of the project, were developed in China’s northwestern ancient city of Xi’an, Shan said in an interview. The project was officially put into commercial operation in September 2021. Launched in 2013, CPEC is a corridor linking the Gwadar port in southwestern Pakistan with Kashgar in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which highlights energy, transport and industrial cooperation. In 2015, the two sides signed more than 50 cooperation deals and agreed to centre the development of the CPEC with four key areas, namely, the Gwadar Port, transport infrastructure, energy and industrial cooperation. In 1992, Lahore and Xian became sister cities, and the development of the two cities has since been interwoven together.

Zhao Qi, the general manager of China XD Electric Co., Ltd., told Xinhua that at the end of 2014, the XD group provided technical solutions for the project, and on top of that, the company successfully won the bid for the project’s converter transformers, said Zhao. Xian XD Transformer Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of his group, produced 28 converter transformers and 47 reactors that are being used in the Matiari-Lahore HVDC transmission project, he added. The eastern part of Pakistan is hot with the temperature exceeding 50 degrees Celsius most of the time in summer. For this reason, the design team of XD Group optimized the structure of the main components and the installation method of bushings. The project has now operated safely for over 1,000 days, with a cumulative transmission of 26.8 billion kWh, guaranteeing the electricity use of 10 million households in Lahore and its surrounding areas and facilitating the socio-economic economic development in the area.