The highest growth rate is nearly 50%, and investment in fixed assets for both networks is accelerating, ushering in a boom cycle in the global power grid construction.

Since April 4th, this year, China's power grid investment has accelerated, and the construction pace has noticeably increased. Recently, State Grid and Southern Power Grid successively disclosed their fixed asset investment in the first quarter. State Grid completed nearly 130 billion yuan of fixed asset investment in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of about 37%, driving upstream and downstream investments in the industrial chain to over 250 billion yuan. State Grid is coordinating the development of various levels of power grids, continuously improving the level of optimal allocation of grid resources and power supply guarantee capacity. Southern Power Grid Company completed a fixed asset investment of 38.45 billion yuan in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 49.5%. By 2026, Southern Power Grid plans to complete a fixed asset investment of 180 billion yuan. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period (2026 to 2030), the investment scale will reach trillions of yuan, and is expected to drive upstream and downstream industrial chain investments to 2 trillion yuan. Previously, State Grid announced that the total fixed asset investment during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period would reach 4 trillion yuan. With the addition of Southern Power Grid investment, China's power grid construction has officially entered a new stage of annual investment of nearly one trillion yuan. To ensure the progress of project construction, both grids are speeding up the bidding and procurement work. According to CICC data: in the ultra-high voltage field, the current "Three West-East, One North" projects have entered the approved start stage and equipment bidding has not been carried out. Analysts are optimistic that a new round of bidding peaks for ultra-high voltage equipment will follow; in the main grid field, China State Grid has initiated two bids for transmission and transformation equipment in 2026 with a significant year-on-year increase in the second batch of main equipment bids; in the meter field, two meter bids have been initiated in 2026, totaling nearly 49.2 million units, which is close to the level for the full year of 2025, with the unit price for special bids restored. It is worth noting that for the first time this year, China's government work report mentioned "Calculation and Electricity Coordination," and the two grids have accelerated their corresponding layouts: in the first quarter, State Grid completed over 10 billion yuan of investment in new energy connection projects, a year-on-year increase of over 50%, to fully serve the energy's green and low-carbon transformation. On March 27th, the Southern Power Grid 500 kV Machang substation project was put into operation in the Guian New Area of Guizhou, three months ahead of the original plan, significantly enhancing the power supply guarantee capacity of the Machang Industrial New City data center cluster, and effectively driving the coordinated development of calculation and electricity. Industrial pointed out that new infrastructure projects centered around new quality productivity are the cornerstone of China's economy during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. In the context of the AI industrial revolution, calculation and electricity coordination is becoming an important part of new quality productivity. Leveraging China's cost advantage in electricity, calculation and electricity coordination has great potential and will significantly enhance China's AI industry's competitive edge. Global power grid investments entering a prosperous cycle In fact, global power grid investments over the past decade have lagged behind power generation investments, making it difficult to address issues such as energy transition, aging power grids, and electricity consumption in emerging industries such as AI. To achieve energy security, cost reduction, and green transformation, global power grid investments are expected to enter a prosperous cycle. Europe has proposed a comprehensive plan for power grids, which is expected to leverage 1.2 trillion euros of power grid investments; the three major power grids in the United States have launched a total of 75 billion US dollars of power grid transmission and transformation upgrade plans. The direction of global power grid transformation includes upgrading ultra-high voltage and main grids, upgrading distribution networks to digital intelligence, and implementing microgrids, virtual power plants, and off-grid electricity consumption at the electricity consumption end. However, even so, the construction boom of data centers in the United States is facing a bottleneck in electricity equipment. Nearly half of its planned data center projects this year will be delayed or canceled, with one of the key reasons being a shortage of power equipment such as transformers, power sources, and batteries. As domestic production capacity in the United States is unable to meet demand, data center builders can only rely on imports. Benjamin Boche, a senior analyst at Wood Mackenzie, said, "Domestic capacity is far from enough, so enterprises can basically only turn to the import market for procurement." Most transformers in the United States come from Canada, Mexico, and South Korea. In addition, Wood Mackenzie estimates that in the first 10 months of 2025, the United States imported more than 8,000 high-power transformers from China, compared to less than 1,500 for the entire year of 2022. Data recently released by the General Administration of Customs of China shows that the cumulative export value of electrical equipment in January and February reached 16.106 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33.69%. Looking at specific products, transformer exports remain highly prosperous, maintaining a high growth rate year-on-year; meter exports have rebounded month-on-month and reached a new high in recent periods; switch exports have declined month-on-month but maintain a relatively high growth rate year-on-year; cable exports have achieved high growth year-on-year. CASC Securities pointed out that the improvement of global power grid investments will directly drive the demand for power grid equipment. China's power grid equipment industry chain has the advantage of covering all voltage levels, connecting the upstream and downstream of the industry, and being technologically competitive or even leading, and compared to similar foreign equipment, it has cost-effectiveness advantages. Top manufacturers are actively deploying strategies to go global, joining certification systems in regions such as the United States and Europe. CICC also stated that it continues to be optimistic about the global wave of investment in electricity, with Chinese companies stepping up overseas layouts and profit elasticities expected to be released. This article is reprinted from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, author: Zheng Yuanfang; GMTEight Editor: mz.