Tree fern clusters found by staff members of Sanming Yiyuan Power Investigation Design Co., Ltd. (Photo by Ji Zhihui)
While conducting preliminary surveys and mapping for a power supply line project in Guodun Village in Sanming City, Fujian Province, staff members of the State Grid-affiliated Sanming Yiyuan Power Investigation Design Co., Ltd. discovered several clusters of tree ferns.
To avoid damage to the tree ferns, a national second-grade protected plant growing in the earth as food for dinosaurs over 100 million years ago, the original design has been modified and the planned power line rerouted, causing extra costs for the construction of an additional transmission tower and extra power lines, said Zheng Gongquan, project manager of the company.
While facilitating high-quality development of power grids, Sanming City has prioritized ecological conservation and green development, incorporating environmental protection throughout the entire process of power grid planning, construction and operation and maintenance.
Since the environmentally-friendly power grid project was officially launched at the Guancheng 220-kV substation in Yong'an, Sanming, in 2025, the Sanming Power Supply Company of the State Grid Fujian Electric Power Co., Ltd. has developed and applied a large number of new processes, technologies and equipment for green power construction, and actively promoted these innovations to other companies and the public, said the company's deputy manager Zhu Quanbang.
Recently, at the construction site of the transmission line project for Wenchang 110-kV substation, Sanming's first "zero-carbon" substation, located in the Dajinhu scenic area in Taining County, large drones were used to transport materials from the foot of the mountain to the construction site.
Compared with traditional transport methods, the use of drones had significantly reduced tree felling by more than 400 cubic meters and damage to vegetation by nearly 10,000 square meters.
With strong support from the local power supply company, Taining Jinjiang International Resort Hotel, located in the Dajinhu scenic area, has built Fujian's first hotel microgrid demonstration project integrating photovoltaic power generation, energy storage and EV charging. The project can generate more than 400,000 kWh of electricity from solar energy each year and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 4,000 tonnes annually.
Through route optimization and avoidance, green construction, ecological restoration and technological innovation, Sanming is coordinating power supply security, the energy transition and ecological conservation, and has charted a new path toward the coordinated development of a high-quality power grid and ecological conservation. (Edited by Li Xueqing with Xinhua Silk Road, lixueqing@xinhua.org)
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