Skip to main content

The Chinese Supergrid Challenges the World

From the series The world car battle

Electrification of Everything – Accelerating Electrification is the title of a document by Siemens AG. For the German electric group, electrification is the necessary step to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

The global grid

According to the International Energy Agency, electrification means replacing technologies or processes that use fossil fuels, like internal combustion engines and gas boilers, with electrically-powered equivalents, such as electric vehicles or heat pumps. These replacements are typically more efficient, reducing energy demand, and have a growing impact on emissions as electricity generation is decarbonised.

The grid is a single integrated mechanism of continental dimensions, owned by dozens of different companies and managed by operators who balance thousands of producers with different energy sources in real-time. A new electrical device can be designed and built in a year or two, or a new household appliance and an electrified car in a decade, but the electric grid requires decades to be planned and built [Peter Fox-Penner, Power After Carbon, 2020].

According to Rystad Energy, an independent energy research and business intelligence firm based in Oslo, global electric grids will require $3.1 trillion in investments by 2030. An additional eighteen million kilometres would be needed to keep up with worldwide electrification. This would increase the total length of electric grids to 104 million kilometres by 2030 and 140 million kilometres by 2050 – almost the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

The growing global demand for energy is the main factor driving the need to strengthen the grid. This increase is driven by population growth, industrialisation, and urbanisation in developing countries, as well as efforts in the energy transition, which essentially seeks to electrify any energy source. Today, this growth is being accelerated by the digitisation of the economy, the exponential growth in internet usage, the proliferation of data centres, and artificial intelligence, which is a major consumer of electricity.

Chinese supergrid

According to the American Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), China had the ambitious plan to build the largest supergrid in the world, with high voltage direct current (HVDC) lines around 500 kV (kilovolts) and ultra-high voltage (UHV), either direct current (UHVDC) or alternating current (UHVAC), above 800 kV [IEEE, February 21st, 2019]. We wrote about UHV networks in this newspaper in October 2022.

A supergrid is a wide-area transmission network designed to enable the exchange of large volumes of electricity over long distances. UHV lines transfer electricity generated from coal, gas, hydro, solar, or wind power plants from remote areas to metropolises thousands of kilometres away.

Energy authorities worldwide are watching what China is doing. Gregory Reed, a transmission expert who manages the Center for Energy at the University of Pittsburgh, argues that the UHV network places China far ahead of the rest of the world. Reed warns that the Chinese are investing significantly and have gone straight to the highest levels of technological capacity from day one. There is no comparison with anywhere else in the world: It's like we’re all still pedalling our bicycles, while the Formula One race car goes flying by.

As described by Chinese politics expert Yi-Chong Xu in her 2017 book Sinews of Power [Oxford University Press], the decision to develop an ultra-high voltage network was made at the end of 2004 by Liu Zhenya, then president of State Grid, the largest electric utility in the world, and by Ma Kai, minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the powerful State agency that regulates growth and major Chinese investments. Within a year, the NDRC had approved an ambitious plan to build ultra high voltage networks.

Electricity, by its nature, has been a science-based industry since its origins. Liu assigned about 2,000 engineers from State Grid to the project and funded more than 300 professors and 1,000 graduate students at Chinese universities to conduct research and development activities related to the power grid. It is another example of how Chinese capitalism is no longer based solely on a large availability of low-wage labour, as it was before 2000, but focuses on high technologies and a science-based industry.

In January 2009, State Grid activated its first UHV (alternating current) demonstration line at 1,000 kV and 650 km in length, to connect the regional grids of northern and central China. Ten years later, State Grid had completed 19 of the 30 proposed UHV lines.

ABB, whose electrical division is now part of Hitachi, Siemens, and other international energy technology companies, played a decisive role in the development and validation of key components of the Chinese UHV network. As was the case for Volkswagen when it opened its first joint factory in China, State Grid insisted on sharing intellectual property for the technologies developed on its behalf. Initially, suppliers hesitated – Liu wrote – but ultimately yielded due to the determined attitude of the Chinese utility and market opportunities. State Grid is also exporting its equipment and expertise abroad.

Liu, now the former president of the company, is leading a campaign to build transcontinental and intercontinental UHV networks. The same technology used to build the 1,100 kV line from Xinjiang to Anhui could efficiently transport energy up to 5,000 kilometres. On this basis, he is conceiving ambitious plans to bring electricity from northern China to Europe. If we just turn that line around to point west, we are getting close to Europe. So, the technology is available, says Magnus Callavik, general manager of ABB Sifang Power System, a joint venture between the Swiss energy engineering giant ABB and the Chinese Sifang Automation, based in Beijing. The obstacles would be political, no longer technological.

The American weakness

China adds flexibility to power grids, builds storage capacity to avoid outages [Reuters, July 26th, 2023]. According to central government officials, Beijing is introducing more flexible solutions for the transmission of electric power in its national grid system, helping to prevent the recurrence of outages that affected some parts of the country last year. Ultra-high voltage grids allow for more stability: if hydroelectric power from dams in the Central-West is lacking, wind and solar power from Mongolia can be used.

This year, China has also widely developed its energy storage capacities with a new kind of technologies, officials said. The storage of this energy is largely done with lithium-ion batteries and contrasts with the old pumped hydro-storage technologies. The battery that powers electric cars or laptops is used for grid stabilisation. To understand how strategic the lithium battery is, one must look beyond the automotive sector and consider all industrial sectors.

The January 21st issue of Forbes states: China Is Building a Supergrid – And So Should We. In 2021, a severe snowstorm hit Texas. When it happened, the State’s isolated grid, lacking the advantages of a supergrid to access excess energy from neighbouring regions, left 4.5 million homes and businesses without electricity [Lotta Comunista, March 2021].

To understand why, one must remember that the United States’ electric grid includes three main interconnections: the Eastern Interconnection, the Western Interconnection, and the independent Texas Interconnection. The local grids within these zones are connected, but the links between the three large zones are minimal, reducing efficient energy use and leaving the grids vulnerable to outages. Forbes notes that China is moving quickly to build the world's largest supergrid, and the US must learn to do the same within the American electric system.

Interesting marginal note: these UHV lines predominantly exploit new technology made in Europe. The European Union does not intend to fall behind. The president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stated at the World Economic Forum that a European supergrid will be at the centre of an upcoming plan to lower electricity prices [Euractiv, January 21st].

American industrial capitalism, after the Second World War, taught Europe and the rest of the world Fordism, Taylorism, scientifically-based management, and the creation of large electrical grids. The US is still on the offensive with the digital giants. Today, however, the supergrid is a factor of the productivity struggle, and China and the EU are ahead of the US. One indicator is the size of electric utilities: none of the top ten worldwide are American. In the coming decades, in the competition among great powers, a fundamental battle, although little visible in the media, will be fought over electric grids.

Lotta Comunista, September 2025

Labels:

Popular posts in the last week

China’s Electromechanical Champions

Internationalism No. 85, March 2026 Page 9 From the series Major industrial groups in China Analysing the WTO data for 2023, it emerges that China exported goods worth $3,379 billion, surpassing the European Union and the United States. Industrial machinery accounted for over 7% of exports and electrical machinery 9%. In the same sectors, Chinese imports did not reach 40% of the value of exports, indicating that these are among the pillars of Beijing’s export economy. Sany Heavy Industry In this newspaper we have already examined the Chinese mechanical engineering giant Sinomach. But in the field of machine construction, Sany Heavy Industry also holds a prominent position, particularly in excavators, cranes, industrial elevators, and cement machinery. The company, based in Changsha (Hunan) since 1991, was founded by Liang Wengen, who had previously been an executive at a State-owned arms factory, and is its main shareholder. Sany had a 2023 turnover...
Read more

The EU Commission Plans for Rearmament and a Clean Industrial Deal

Internationalism No. 71, January 2025 Page 2 From the series European news Following the European elections which took place on June 6th - 9th, the leaders of the Member States met on June 27th at the European Council. Ursula von der Leyen was nominated as president of the next European Commission, after she was chosen as the European People’s Party’s (EPP) Spitzenkandidat (“leading candidate”). The agreement also included the election of former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa as president of the European Council, and the appointment of former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Subsequently, on July 18th, Parliament elected von der Leyen as president of the Commission by an absolute majority, with 401 votes out of 719 MEPs. On September 17th, von der Leyen presented her team of commissioners to the European Parliament and, two days later, the Council adopted this list of...
Read more

The Munich Soviet Republic

Internationalism No. 87, May 2026 Page 9 From the series Pages from the history of the workers' movement The Munich Soviet Republic With the Munich Soviet Republic, the German Revolution, which began on November 9 th , 1918, seemed to be flickering its last. In the Bavarian capital, after the fall of the Wittelsbachs, power had fallen into the hands of Kurt Eisner, a pacifist intellectual, member of the USPD, and contributor to the revisionist newspaper Münchner Post since 1910. Eisner had managed something unheard of in Germany – to gain the support of the farmers, in particular Karl Gandorfer, head of the Bavarian Peasants' League. Workers, soldiers, and peasants "Traditionally a stronghold of Catholicism and reaction" , Bavaria "had declared early for the November Revolution, largely because its people hated the Prussians and re...
Read more

The Court: From Civil Rights to Individual Rights

Internationalism No. 87, May 2026 Page 11 From the series Chronicles of the new American nationalism Edward Lazarus, a clerk for Justice Harry Blackmun at the Supreme Court in 1988–89 and chief of staff at the Federal Communications Commission during Barack Obama's administration, published Closed Chambers in 1998, an account of the work of the Supreme Court under Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Lazarus considers that it is history and geography that have shaped the character of the Court. The author identifies four decisive battles in its history: in 1937, the bitter clash over the powers and economic policy of the New Deal; in 1954, the fierce battle over the civil rights of Black Americans; in 1973, the struggle for individual rights; and in 1974, the ruling that marked the end of Richard Nixon's presidency. Lazarus's supreme regionalism ...
Read more

American Convulsion and the Crisis in the World Order in Hormuz

Internationalism No. 87, May 2026 Pages 4 and 5 With the war against Iran and the naval blockade of Iranian ports in response to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the United States has plunged the energy artery of the Persian Gulf into chaos. This has triggered economic, social, and political upheavals from East to West, the full extent and uneven distribution of which have yet to be fully assessed. That the third Gulf War of American imperialism would have unintended consequences had long been written into the laws of politics. Every political action, all the more so if conducted by military means, is part of a parallelogram of forces, the result of which can never correspond to the intention of any individual actor involved. The objective each power pursues is either hindered or aided by the others. Therefore, the course of the conflict will correspond, to a greater or lesser extent, ...
Read more

Innovation Incubators

Internationalism No. 87, May 2026 Page 7 From the series Industry and pharmaceuticals II South San Francisco is considered the birthplace of biotechnology. Here, in 1976, the biochemist Herbert W. Boyer of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and the venture capitalist Robert Swanson founded Genentech, commonly considered the first biotech company in the world. Swanson had studied at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), then moved to San Francisco and cultivated a passion for molecular biology. Genetic engineering was about to take off in Californian universities, starting with the pioneering DNA manipulation experiments carried out by Boyer in collaboration with Stanley N. Cohen, a geneticist at Stanford University. At the time, observes Nature , leading scientists proposing involvement with industry was considered heresy . Swanson and Boyer...
Read more

The Social Brain and Artificial Intelligence

Internationalism No. 87, February 2026 Page 1 From the series Artificial Intelligence There is an anthropological question linked to the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on human consciousness, analogous – though at a higher level – to the effects of online communication and even television. We consider three aspects of this. Physical , concerning changes in the brain’s neural connections as a social product. Functional , concerning capacities that are stunted or developed by the internet and the use of artificial intelligence. Epistemological , concerning the implications for the theory of knowledge and the very notion of an objectively defined principle of reality . The Church, as it has already done with biotechnologies capable of intervening in human DNA, is developing its own reflection on artificial intelligence and its anthropological impli...
Read more

The Invisible Sword of Nuclear Latency

Internationalism No. 83, January 2026 Page 6 According to the Kyodo news agency, on December 17 th a senior government official involved in the revision of the three national security documents adopted in 2022 expressed his personal stance on the need for Japan to equip itself with nuclear weapons. In light of the severe security situation surrounding the archipelago and the questionable reliability of the American nuclear deterrent , Tokyo must recognise that it can only rely on itself . Although the creation of a national arsenal is unrealistic and difficult , given that the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) recognises only five nuclear States de jure , nonetheless this discussion must take place within the government . The official denies having discussions with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about the revision of the three non-nuclear principles (not to possess, manufacture, or permit the introduction of nuclear weapons into Japan) est...
Read more

The Vatican and the American Crisis

Internationalism No. 87, May 2026 Page 2 In Washington, they haven't understood the conclave. They don't understand this new phase of Catholicism . According to Massimo Franco, this is the view inside the Vatican regarding Donald Trump's attack on the Pope [ Corriere della Sera , April 14]. The day before, Trump had targeted Robert Prevost, dedicating a lengthy post to him on his own social media platform, Truth Social . At the heart of his criticism was papal opposition to the third Gulf War. I don't want a Pope who thinks it's OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon – he had written – I don't want a pope who criticises the president of the United States or who meets with Obama sympathisers . All accompanied by an AI-generated image in which Trump appeared in the guise of a healing Jesus. Americanism and US imperialist expansion The forms are those of show and s...
Read more

The Islamic Quartet and China in the New Equilibrium in the Gulf

Internationalism No. 87, May 2026 Page 6 At the time of writing, the third Gulf War , which began on February 28 th and escalated in April with a fresh Israeli intervention in Lebanon against Hezbollah, has reached an uncertain truce. Brokered by Pakistan's diplomats, it was agreed as part of a four-way Islamic agreement – bringing together Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey – and backed by China. According to the Japanese newspaper Nikkei , the diplomatic initiative's origins date back to the extraordinary summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), of which Iran is also a member, and was sealed at the March 24 th summit of the Islamic Quartet in Islamabad. First came the meeting between the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, and Pakistan; then came Chinese backing and Sino-Pakistani talks, which produced a five-point proposal for a ceasefire. The proposal ...
Read more