China's Ministry of Environmental Protection has fined Guangdong Power Grid Corporation RMB200,000 and asked it to stop using the two construction projects in Maoming and Zhanjiang that were built without approval and put into operation without undergoing relevant environmental inspections.
According to Southern China Environment Protection and Supervision Center of MEP, GPGC started the construction of a 500 kv. transformer substation in Maoming in October 2005 without submitting a report to the environment department indicating the project's influence to the environment and it further put the facility into operation in November 2006 without having the affiliated facilities checked by the environment department.
In addition, the company's Aoli 500 kv. Oil-fired Power Station and Gangcheng Transformer Substation in Zhanjiang, which was approved by the former State Environment Protection Administration in August 2006, was put into use in November of that year without having its environment facilities inspected by the environment department.
MEP says that GPGC has violated the relevant rules and the Environment Protection Law of China, and has therefore punished the company. However, MEP says as the two projects are closely related to the public's interest, the punishment of stopping using them won't be implemented until October 31, 2008. The two projects are expected to pass the relevant environment appraisal before that date, or they will be ordered to cease operations.
