International Experts Advise Setting Up Unified Power Grid Of North-East Asia

Participants in an international seminar of power experts, just completed, have recommended a unified power grid for North-East Asia countries - Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, and Mongolia. The sponsors of this seminar on "Development of International Cooperation in the Power Industry of North-East Asia" were the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific /ESCAP/, Vostokenergo company, a representative of Russia's Unified Energy Systems, the Institute of Economic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Far Eastern branch, the Institute of Economics and Power of the Republic of Korea, as well as a number of organisations from China, Japan and other countries. A communique adopted after the seminar says, among other things, that it is necessary to set up consultative inter-governmental working groups on the development of the power industry in the region and on regional power cooperation. Experts say that Russia's Far East has a vast energy potential which is far from fully exploited. The planned commissioning of the Bureya hydro-electric power station in 2003 will not only meet the electricity needs of Russia's Far Eastern region, but also make it possible to sell electricity abroad. The beginnings of the future unified grid already exist - these are operating power transmission lines from the Amur region to China. A desire to receive electricity from Russia has been expressed by North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia and other countries. The possibility is also mooted of creating a power bridge between Russia and Japan.