Electricity Corps powers after-quake reconstruction amid global financial turmoil

Source: Xinhua | 11-27-2008 08:35

by Xinhua writers Qi Zijian and Chen Kai

YINGXIU, Sichuan, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- It is not usual for an electrician to light her way by mobile phone for hours in a building, let alone two. But Guo Zhengrong and her father, two electricians, did this after the May 12 earthquake struck.

Stranded in the rubble of their building in Yingxiu, epicenter of the eight-magnitude quake, which killed nearly 70,000 people and left some 18,000 missing, Guo and her father were in the dark.

Without any light and telecommunications, they used the glimmer of a mobile phone to move the bricks and floor slabs. They cleaned their way to safety almost one day later.

In early October, the winding mountain road led her back to her workplace in Yingxiu of Sichuan Province in southwest China, and Guo took up her job of electric welding again in the reconstruction of a hydropower station, which will supply electricity to many consumers, including an aluminum plant and two industry parks.

"I learned a lot of new technologies in the power station reconstruction," the 31-year-old Guo said. "Although the quake cast a shadow on my mind, I still enjoy the work here."

　　BAROMETER FOR RECONSTRUCTION PROCESS

Guo's life moves on, so do people in the quake-hit zone. And they need electric power in their life and work. Guo is a member of an electricity supplying corps, the state grid.

"Nearly all sectors, industry, infrastructure construction and residents consumption, are in need of electricity," said Xiao Bing, deputy director of Dujiangyan Electric Power Supply Bureau.

"We are gearing up to reconstruct ourselves, expand the grid and power the reconstruction in the quake-hit areas," he added.

The quake had stopped operations of 171 transformer substation of 35 kv and above in Sichuan, 2,769 lines of 10 kv and above, and cut the power supply to 4.05 million electricity consumers.