Business

China Power-Grid Investments Surge to Record $574 Billion
By Reuters | 15 Jan, 2026

During the 2026-2030 period China's investment in its energy grid will jump 40% over the previous five years.

China's State Grid will spend 4 trillion yuan ($574 billion) to upgrade the country's power grid between 2026 and 2030, state-run Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.

That is a 40% jump in fixed-asset investments from the previous five-year period, according to the report by Xinhua, as China ramps up wind and solar capacity to meet its goal of peaking its carbon emissions by 2030. 

It works out to an average 800 billion yuan in investment per year - topping the record 650 billion yuan that the country's main national grid operator invested in 2025.

The funding will go towards shoring up China's west-to-east power transmission network, Xinhua said, using high-voltage power lines to send electricity across thousands of kilometres from China's less densely populated western regions to its eastern metropolises.

State Grid will increase cross-provincial and cross-regional power transmission by 30% from end-2025 levels, the report said.

The outlays will also serve to expand distribution networks in both urbanised and remote areas, and explore off-grid and microgrid power generation models.

(Reporting by Colleen Howe; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)