Recently, the 500 kV Tongdu Substation designed by Hubei Engineering Company was successfully commissioned and energized, marking that another major energy hub project in Central China has entered the operational phase and will provide important momentum for the high-quality economic and social development of the eastern Hubei region.

The project is a key project in the 14th Five-Year Plan for Hubei Province's power grid and also the "heart project" of power grid upgrading in eastern Hubei. It plays an important role in optimizing the regional energy layout and serving local industrial upgrading, will substantially improve the efficiency and safety of power grid operation, significantly enhance the power supply capacity of eastern Hubei, and better serve the high-quality economic development of the Wuhan metropolitan area and surrounding regions.

The 500 kV Tongdu Substation is located in Daye City, Hubei Province. As a key node of the Central China power grid's "West-to-East Power Transmission" corridor, it undertakes the outward transmission of clean energy such as Three Gorges hydropower and connects via seven 500 kV outgoing lines to core load areas including Cihu, Guanggu, and Yongxing Converter Station, optimizing the main grid structure of Hubei's power grid and forming a new pattern of regional energy interconnection.

After the project is completed and put into operation, it is expected to transmit more than 20 billion kWh of clean electricity annually, support the electricity demand of key projects such as the Wuhan Optics Valley Science and Technology Innovation Corridor and the Huangshi Advanced Manufacturing Base, significantly increase the power supply reliability of Wuhan, Huangshi, Ezhou, and other places by more than 30%, benefit more than 5 million people in Huangshi, Ezhou, and other places, and inject momentum into local economic development.

This energization and commissioning of the 500 kV Tongdu Substation is Hubei's first pilot in which a centralized control station adopts the "full remote control + remote program control" method to energize a new station. It can greatly improve the precision of operations and significantly increase work efficiency, and also prepares for building a new integrated operation, inspection, and monitoring system and creating a "unmanned + centralized monitoring" digital-intelligent substation demonstration area.