The State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), the country's largest power supplier, pledged Tuesday to launch projects in the country's most remote corners, offering another 2.07 million people access to electricity by the end of 2015.
In its annual social responsibility report, the SGCC said it plans to light the nights of 400,000 people this year after providing 136,000 rural residents with access to electricity in 2011.
An electricity supplier with grids covering 88 percent of China's land, the SGCC supplied electricity to 5.09 million people who had never before had access to electricity during the 20006-2010 period.
Some 5 million Chinese people living in remote villages in mountainous or border areas are currently without electricity, and the government has vowed to extend electricity services to such groups by the end of 2015.
According to the SGCC report, China's urban residents endured an average of 6.92 hours of blackouts, while rural households experienced an average of 29.35 hours of blackouts last year.
In its report, the SGCC vowed to shorten the periods of electricity cut-offs to 5.71 hours for urban citizens and 23.7 hours for rural residents through grid upgrades and renovations.
The SGCC will invest more than 300 billion yuan (47.65 billion U.S. dollars) this year in grid construction, particularly ultra-high voltage electricity transmission lines, after an investment of 301.9 billion yuan in 2011.
