The Three Gorges dam is to help ease China's power shortage. Five provinces and two municipalities on Sunday signed contracts with the State Power Authority to buy electricity from the Three Gorges Power Station.

According to the contracts, over 2.8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity will be sold in 2003, to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Henan, Hubei and Hunan provinces, and the municipalities of Shanghai and Chongqing.

From next year on, Guangdong, Jiangxi and Anhui provinces will also be added to the list of signed-up customers. The average price to be charged to the domestic consumer will be 0.33 yuan, or US$0.04.

"We need a reasonable return from the Three Gorges project, and also want local governments to spend their money without reluctance. Now we are happy to see a balanced situation. The average price for all buyers is 0.33 yuan," said Zhang Guobao, Vice Minister of State Development & Reform Commission.

By completion of the Three Gorges power project, 26 hydraulic generation units will go into operation, each with a capacity of 700,000 kilowatts. The planned overall capacity of the station will exceed 18 million kilowatts .

According to Li Yongan, Vice President of Three Gorges Development Cooperative, "From now on, 4 sets of generators will go into operation every year. By 2009, the plant will generate nearly 85 billion kilowatts of power.

Officials from the Power Network Administration say the Three Gorges power station will transmit electricity to many parts of China, but mainly to the east.

(CCTV.com August 18, 2003)