Can ultra-high voltage power transmission bring environmental and health benefits? An assessment in China

Abstract

Long-distance power transmission is a very important way of energy utilization, which can achieve regional environmental benefits through the transfer of air pollutants. But, how to evaluate such benefits has not been well presented. This study uses a generalized approach to assess the environmental and health benefits of power transmission based on the GAINS model. The impact pathway approach is adopted to evaluate the health losses in the electric power industry. The epidemiological relative risk is calculated by integrated exposure-response function. An inter-regional health loss impact matrix is constructed to reflect indirect effects due to the regional diffusion of air pollution. Using the case of China, this study evaluates whether the current ultra-high voltage (UHV) power transmission lines can bring environmental and health benefits, and discusses in which provinces the establishment of electricity interconnection can bring more benefits. The results highlight the importance of considering air quality, pollutant diffusion, and health losses in environmental benefit assessment, which is significantly different from the results obtained by using air pollutant emissions alone. Most UHV direct current lines can bring high environmental and health benefits, but the performances of UHV alternating current lines are relatively poor. The power transmission from Northwest China, Southwest China, and Inner Mongolia to Central China can bring relatively large environmental and health benefits, which may become a direction for future long-distance power transmission planning.