Ding Yongfu did not know where his anger came from. For the first time he lost his temper in front of the leaders of Northwest Grid Corporation. He lectured his leaders, "Drink! You only know drinking. My son's exam performance has fallen from the level of the key classes to the level of the worst class. He is waiting to drop out."
Hearing what Ding Yongfu said, chairman of the board Chen Feng was stunned, so was deputy general manager Li Weidong. Li Weidong was good at dealing with emergencies. He said, "Ding, life is like a bottle of wine. We are men. We should be able to drink every kind of wine. Do not talk about these things. Today we are drinking wine to celebrate the success of 'Project 750'. Everything is in the wine. We do not need to say these words. Cheers!"
He drank up. All the men present drank with the same action. They are bold and generous, but Ding Yongfu knew that in this wine, others could taste happiness, excitement and dreams. What he tasted was sorrowfulness and bitterness. It was the sorrow of his younger brother's early death and the possibility that his son would not be able to enter university.
There were special feelings in celebration wine.
Chapter 2 National Height
General Secretary Comes to the Xiamen Grid
It was already the 28th day of the last month of the lunar year of 2009.
Not long after he came to the offce, Wan Zhijun, general manager of Xiamen Electric Power Bureau, suddenly received a call from the General Offce of Municipal Party Committee. He was asked to go to the Municipal Party Committee for an emergency meeting before half past ten in the morning.
Wan Zhijun looked at his watch. There was not too much time left. He drove to the Municipal Party Committee immediately. When he was seated, the municipal party secretary stepped into the meeting room. He said hello to the ones present and then went directly to the topic. He said, "I have good news to tell you. The Central leaders will visit Xiamen and spend Spring Festival here with people of Xiamen. On the first day of the lunar year, the leaders will visit the employees who still remain at their posts. We will select one enterprise, Xiamen Electric Power Bureau. I request you get everything ready to welcome the leaders' visit."
After graduating from university, Wan Zhijun worked in Feicheng Power Supply Bureau. He always remembered the request of Liu Zhenya, then general manager of Shandong Electric Power Company, that leaders should remain at their posts during the three major festivals. They should guard the light of tens of thousands of families. Though they could not unite with their own families, other families could have a happy festival. People of SGCC should set the example, so they remained at their posts during Spring Festival! On the 29th day of the twelfth month of the lunar year, general manager Liu Zhenya flew to Xiamen and visited the employees of Xiamen Electric Power Bureau. He made the preparations for welcoming General Secretary Hu Jintao.
That day, general manager Liu listened to the Xiamen Electric Power Bureau's report and checked the details. Also, he gave some suggestions and requirements for the report details.
General manager Liu Zhenya said, "This is extremely good news for us. General Secretary Hu Jintao's visit to SGCC is a big encouragement and an inspiration for more than 1.5 million people in SGCC. It is also the biggest form of approval for the innovative work done by SGCC. Xiamen Electric Power Bureau should make adequate preparations to welcome the General Secretary and fully demonstrate the achievements we have made in innovation through the implementation of the Scientific Outlook on Development."
As a result, that night Wan Zhijun and two other comrades of the Production Department of SGCC revised the report until daybreak.
On Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve, Huang Yunjin, deputy director of the Production Department of the 95598 customer service center of Xiamen Electric Power Bureau, was having New Year's Eve dinner with her family. Suddenly her phone rang. It was Huang Huiying, deputy head of Xiamen Electric Power Bureau.
"General manager Huang, is there anything urgent?"
"It is an emergency. Call a taxi and come to the Electric Building right now."
"OK." After hanging up the phone, Huang Yunjin called her director Liu Qiang and reported that something urgent had happened on New Year's Eve.
Director Liu Qiang said, "I am in a meeting room on the 10th floor."
"I see."
After a while, Huang Yunjin arrived at the meeting room on the 10th floor. When she stepped into the room, director Liu Qiang handed her a manu and said, "Tomorrow, General Secretary Hu will come to visit the 95598 electric customer service center. You will be in charge of presenting it to him."
"Me?" Huang Yunjin was surprised and she stuck out her tongue, "Can I?"
"It must be you!" Director Huang Huiying said without any hesitation.
"I feel extremely flattered," Huang Yunjin said with anxiety. "But I'm afraid I won't do it well."
"Yunjin, you can do it," Huang Huiying encouraged her. Though Huang Yunjin was just a junior college student graduate from Changchun Junior College of Water Conservancy and Electric Power, she had worked in several positions since coming to work in Xiamen Electric Power Bureau in 1999. She had first worked as window service girl in the hall. Then she had become a business offcer responsible for business expansion. Later, she became the director responsible for business quality. She then became deputy director of the production department of the customer service center. Her promotion was almost determined by Huang Huiying alone when Huang was the director of the customer center. Huang Huiying knew quite well her strain capacity and her gentle way of dealing with things.
"Start practicing according to the manu," said Chen Weizhong, deputy general manager of Fujian Electric Power Company, waving his hands.
Therefore, Huang Yunjin stood in the center of the meeting room. Opposite her sat Chen Weizhong, Wang Lin, deputy director of the Marketing Department of Fujian Electric Power Company and Huang Huiying. Following the framework of the manu, Huang Yunjun demonstrated her language abilities again and again.
"OK." Deputy general manager Chen Weizhong nodded when it was 12 o'clock. He said, "Huang has clear articulation and she can respond with flexibility. As long as she is not nervous, there will be no problem."
Huang Huiying came to her and patted her shoulders, "Sleep well today. Tomorrow do a good job in front of the General Secretary and fully show the spirit of people who work in SGCC.""I will." Huang Yunjin was very confident.
Firecrackers were everywhere and thousands of families reunited. Fireworks lit up the sky of Xiamen. A happy and reunited New Year's Eve passed quickly.
The next morning, Huang Yunjin got up very early. Knowing she had an important task ahead, her mother-in-law made a bowl of noodles and fried an egg for her. Huang Yunjin finished her breakfast and hurried to the business lobby at 7 o'clock. She said to the girls in the hall, "Today you will have the chance to see the General Secretary."
Tingting, one window server, raised her head and said, "Director Huang, if you have the chance to see General Secretary Hu, please send him a message for me."
"What message?"
Tingting said, "We love him."
"It's a pity, the words were not in the manu," she later told them. "I couldn't add the sentence. This is political discipline."Huang Yunjin felt sorry that she didn't send the message of the girls to Hu that day, but she decided to let General Secretary know how they felt.
On New Year's Eve, Wan Zhijun almost did not sleep. It was not only that he was excited, but also because he was worried. He was under much pressure. In the morning of the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, general manager Liu Zhenya flew to Xiamen. Over lunch, Liu told him something about his first experience of accompanying General Secretary Hu abroad. They visited Russia that time. In close contact, Liu found General Secretary Hu was quite familiar with electric work. He was quite satisfied with the development of SGCC. This time, his visit to Xiamen Electric Power Bureau on the first day of the lunar New Year would be the biggest approval possible SGCC could receive for its leading role in building an innovative country.
At 7 o'clock in the morning of the first day of the lunar year, before Huang Yunjin arrived at the business lobby, Wan Zhijun, general manager Liu Zhenya, a deputy mayor of Xiamen and people from the International Communication Offce of CCCPC were already in the lobby on the first floor of the Electric Building, waiting for General Secretary Hu to arrive.
At 10:20, General Secretary Hu's bus stopped in front of the Electric Building. With Sun Chunlan, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee of Fujian Province and Director of the International Communication Offce of CCCPC accompanying him, Hu got off the bus. Wan Zhijun followed general manager Liu to welcome their coming. General Secretary Hu shook hands with everyone present. When he saw Liu Zhenya, he said, "Liu, you are also here."
"I came from Beijing to accompany General Secretary Hu to visit Xiamen Grid."
General Secretary Hu nodded with a smile and went inside the building. He listened to Liu Zhenya introducing the display boards of SGCC enterprise culture which demonstrated the following aspects: trying to surpass others, pursuing excellence and establishing core values.
General Secretary Hu listened to the introduction when he was walking and nodded to show his approval.
After a while, the General Secretary entered the elevator. General manager Liu Zhenya reported to Hu, "General Secretary, the national electric situation during Spring Festival was quite stable."
"How many employees of SGCC remained at their posts during Spring Festival?" General Secretary Hu asked.
"More than a hundred thousand." Liu Zhenya answered.
General Secretary nodded.
When Hu entered the control center of Xiamen Electric Power Bureau on the 22nd floor, everyone stood up and applauded. General Secretary Hu walked inside and shook hands with Li Weidong, general manager of Fujian Electric Power Company, Zhang Lei, party secretary of Fujian Electric Power Company and the controllers who had been waiting for him.
That day, Zheng Shun was on watch in the control room. He was calm and natural. General Secretary walked up to the desk at which he sat and asked about the operating conditions of Xiamen Grid.
Zhang Shun reported, "General Secretary, now the highest load is 1.06 million kilowatts, less than half of the usual load."
"Why?" General Secretary Hu was interested in this.
"During holidays, people are not at work," answered Li Weidong, general manager of Fujian Electric Power Company. "Now it is getting warm in the south. People do not need to use electricity to get warm. Therefore, the load is not heavy."
General Secretary Hu smiled and said, "Thank you for remaining at your posts during the holidays."
"This is our duty," one controller answered.
General Secretary Hu smiled and nodded in satisfaction. He turned back and said to general manager Liu Zhenya who was standing behind him, "I, on behalf of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, express my heartfelt thanks to the employees of SGCC who work diligently during the holidays."
"Thank you for your great kindness. We wish you a happy New Year," answered General manager Liu Zhenya.
At this time, a PPT was shown on the screen. General Secretary Hu stood there calmly with his companions, listening to Wan Zhijun, head of Xiamen Electric Power Bureau, making introductions. There were 1,830 authorized employees and 1,180 unauthorized employees in Xiamen Electric Power Bureau, serving 900,000 households and 1.15 million people. Then, the second part appeared on the screen, introducing the investment conditions of Xiamen Grid during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period. The investment increased by a billion yuan every year and the total investment had reached more than 4 billion yuan, an increase of 70% over the Tenth Five-Year Plan period. The third part introduced how electric development drove the economic development of Xiamen during the 30 years after the reforms and opening up. In 1978, the electricity consumption of Xiamen was only 178 million KWh. In 2009, it reached 12.8 billion KWh, which was 72 times of that in 1978. The electricity consumption of Fujian Province had increased 27 fold during the same period and the electricity consumption of China had increased by over 13 fold. The fourth part reported to General Secretary Hu the development of SGCC and Xiamen Electric Power Bureau's low carbon economy and the change of economic way of remote transmission of UHV electricity. Xiamen Electric Power Bureau put forward the idea of making improvements inside the island, expanding businesses out of the island, integrating the city and rural areas, coordinating the development between rural and urban areas and building trial projects of a smart grid. The fifth part was about Chinese electricity consumption levels during Spring Festival. The power supply during the festival was adequate. The total consumption amount was 20% more than that of the same period of last year, which indicated that the economy was in a sound status.
In the last part, Wan Zhijun, reported to General Secretary Hu the protective measures that Xiamen took during the festival. Dynamo vans were ready in some key areas with more than 300 people on duty.
Wan Zhijun's presentation satisfied the General Secretary. He nodded many times and was the first to applaud.
He said to Wan Zhijun, "You are the envoy of brightness. You worked very hard to guarantee a comfortable festival for the people. Please wish all the employees of Xiamen Grid a happy new year on my behalf."
Then, general manager Liu Zhenya gave a brief introduction about China's electric situation.
Time flies. The General Secretary had talked with them for more than 20 minutes in the Xiamen Electric Power Bureau control room. According to the plan, the next destination was the 95598 customer service center. General Secretary Hu would visit the employees on duty there.
General Secretary Hu and his companions drove to the customer service center. Meanwhile, Huang Yunjin and her colleagues were ready.
Around 11 o'clock, General Secretary Hu Jintao, accompanied by Sun Chunlan, Liu Zhenya and other key offcials, entered the Xiamen 95598 customer service hall. Wan Zhijun said, "The General Secretary is here to see us!" Then they started to applaud. Huang Yunjin recalled, that morning, General Secretary Hu walked in and shook hands with representatives of the first line of customer service staff. He then stopped in front of Zhou Lumin, one of the representatives, and talked to her.
Zhou was a gentle and mature girl. Though she had never dreamt that the General Secretary would one day stood in front of her and was very excited, she tried to keep calm and answered the General Secretary's questions earnestly. When the General Secretary raised his head and looked at the display boards, Huang Yunjin walked slowly to him and said in a natural way, "General Secretary, I am the group leader of today. 95598 is the SGCC service hotline number. We have 46 people in our team, 22 of them are present. The electrical conditions of New Year's Eve were quite stable. We received no repair requests from customers."
General Secretary Hu was quite happy about this. He raised his head and looked at the big screen. Huang Yunjin pointed to the picture on the screen and explained, "The platform of check and repair is working now. The green cars are on the alert. When they receive the calls from our customers, they go to the destination immediately. The red cars are in the process of finishing their tasks. Xiamen Electric Power Bureau has many cars responsible for repair work now on alert. When our customers call 95598, we arrive at the site as fast as possible."
"Good!" General Secretary Hu adjusted his glasses and said, "Thank you for your hard work. You remain at your posts during Spring Festival and give the people an auspicious and happy Spring Festival. I, on behalf of your customers, express my thanks to you for your work and sacrifice."
"Please trust us. We will surely remain at our posts." Huang Yunjin, on behalf of Xiamen Electric Power Bureau and all the employees of SGCC, made a vow to General Secretary. "We will safeguard the brightness and send the General Secretary's wishes to every household."
General Secretary Hu nodded with satisfaction.
Huang Huiying, deputy head of Xiamen Electric Power Bureau, was standing aside. She said, "General Secretary, we'd like to take a photo with you."
"OK!" General Secretary Hu accepted the invitation gladly. He went to join the employees. All the customer service representatives except those in the first row came. Those in the first row stood still at their posts. Later, the girls felt sorry about that. They all wished to join the others and take a photo with General Secretary Hu.
The spring breeze was blowing through the electric network. When General Secretary Hu was ready to leave, he turned back, however he suddenly saw the culture wall in the customer service hall. He took off his glasses and looked at the display boards on the walls. Deputy head Huang Huiying immediately started to explain the wall to General Secretary Hu. Hu saw the wall of gratitude, on which some girls expressed their thanks to their parents and some thanked their mom for making noodles. Also, there were photos when they took part in public charity activities. Liu Zhenya said to party secretary Sun Chunlan who was standing beside General Secretary Hu, "All these were advocated when you were in the Women's Federation. They continued the practice."
Sun Chunlan smiled with satisfaction.
On the other side of the culture wall were the photos of the service stars. General Secretary Hu raised his head and looked at the photos of the girls. He pointed to the photo of a bright-faced girl and said, "It was this young girl that introduced me." Under her photo there was a sentence, "Let my voice smile." General Secretary Hu said, "She is right. We not only need to put smiles on our faces, but also need to let our voices smile."
"Yes!" Feeling that General Secretary was so concerned about them, Huang Huiying, the senior sister who had created the 95598 customer service center, continued on the topic, "Since the day they entered the 95598 customer service center, we required them to let their voices smile. In this way they can make the customers smile."Li Weidong told General Secretary Hu, "Now the 95588 network covers the whole of Fujian Province. The hotline in Xiamen can help customers in cities such as Zhangzhou and Quanzhou solve their problems."
"Good. It's good." General Secretary Hu nodded and shook hands with customer representatives to say goodbye.
All the people in the hall were quite excited. They were full of passion, but they took turns to shake hands with General Secretary Hu in an orderly way. Later when Huang Yunjin received an interview, she talked about her feelings on the spot. She said, "General Secretary was very kind to people. His hands were powerful when he shook hands with us. His eyes were focused, reflecting the administration style of the central leaders who always stay with the people."
The words of General Secretary were inspiring. On the fourth day of the lunar year, Xiamen Electric Power Bureau convened a forum with the theme of "remembering the words of the General Secretary". They decided to turn the concerns of the General Secretary about SGCC into the biggest driving force to make an innovative enterprise and an innovative country. They decided to continue to make great achievements.
The Height of A Nation and the Strong & Smart Grid
The Boeing aircraft flew over the Pacific Ocean at night and arrived at the other side of the ocean. It started to land.
New York City at night suddenly appeared under the wings. It gradually became larger and larger. The sea of blurry light cleared and the outline of the city appeared.
Liu Zhenya, general manager of SGCC, sat in his seat and looked down through the windows. He had a panoramic view of the strange and vital city.
In was April 2009. New York City was in spring. Cherry trees were in full blossom. The UHV International Forum would be held here. As the general manager of SGCC, Liu Zhenya brought with him the first UHV line in the world that was in operation -"Southeast Shanxi - Nanyang - Jingmen" line - showing its counterparts the achievements that China had made in the R&D and the operation of the UHV line. At the same time, he would like to put forward the concept and goal of the Chinese people of this generation, which was "building a strong and smart grid".
UHV projects were the dream of generations of Chinese people working in SGCC. It was also a peak that the world of electricity was longing for. Liu Zhenya and his team in SGCC were a group of dream-seekers.
The first thing Liu Zhenya did after taking offce as general manager of SGCC was to visit the State Grid control center. He stood before the big screen and looked around the then-State Grid. He suddenly felt that transmission capacity was too weak. Although at that time, there were already some lines linked together, the gird was still mostly separated. The established links were linked for nothing and the transmission capacity was weak, so were the economic benefits and effciency. What was the way forward? When someone majoring in electricity faced electric dilemmas, a well-known formula would appear from time to time in his mind: the transmitted power is in direct ration with the squared voltage. That is to say, in order to realize long-distance transmission, reduce the loss and compete with other industries, the voltage must be raised.
However at that time, the voltage levels of Chinese transmission lines were all below 500 kilovolts. Though we had 500-kilovolt lines, they were very few in number.
Therefore from time to time, the concept of UHV appeared in Liu Zhenya's mind.
According to the publicly recognized standards in the interna-tional electric field, EHV refers to voltages between 200 kilovolts and 750 kilovolts and UHV refers to voltages between 800 kilo-volts and 1,000 kilovolts.
Standing above the mountains of China and looking at the world, Liu Zhenya had a clear mind. Even in advanced Western countries, there were few EHV lines constructed, and UHV projects were even fewer. There were only two lines in Russia and Japan, but both of them were just under trial, not in real operation. Looking across China, every two or three years, there would be a time where coal lacked, or electricity, or oil or the transport capacity wasn't high enough. Sometimes, the situation would be serious and sometimes not so much. Then from time to time, the same problem would emerge and cause tensions and serious situations. During electricity consumption peaks when summer and winter came, a major leader of the State Council would be responsible for the coordination of different provinces about the transportation of coal and transmission of electricity. What was worse, sometimes core leaders of the Central Committee had to go to the frontline and down the mines in order to solve the problem.