China Huaneng Group, the country's biggest power producer, will build two 600-megawatt power units in the far western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, an executive at its Xinjiang subsidiary said on Saturday.

Liu Xinmin, general manager of the Huaneng Xinjiang Energy Development Co, said the regional development and reform commission, the local economic planner, gave the green light to the initial phase of its Turpan power plant on Saturday.

The plant will help to meet rising power demand in Turpan and south Xinjiang and also is a major power source for the country's west-east electricity transmission project, Liu said.

Huaneng planned to start construction in April. The units, which cost about 4.8 billion yuan (US$703 million), are expected to be operational at the end of 2012, he said.

Huaneng also planned to add another two 600MW power units to the Turpan power plant before 2015 to take advantage of the rich coal resources and the region's position as a power grid hub, Liu said.

The power grid in Turpan will be linked this year to a national one to transmit power from west to east.

(Xinhua News Agency January 18, 2010)