China to upgrade power grids in rural areas

China's top economic planer has issued a notice asking local governments to upgrade their rural power grids in a bid to boost the nation's rural power infrastructure and improve the lives of rural residents in the next five years.

Rural power grids should be rebuilt to meet rural residents' demands and agricultural production demands during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), said a notice from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on the website of the central government, www.gov.cn.

The notice states that the central government will shoulder most of the funding for upgrading power grids in the western and central rural areas.

China launched the renovation of rural power grids in 1998 and effectively cut costs for rural power use, but problems still exist in rural electricity grids and some rural areas reported difficulties in satisfying residential and agricultural production demands.