Abstract: The 13th Five-Year period is crucial for speeding up the energy and power development mode transitions. This article summarizes the main achievements of gird development during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, analyzes the situation and challenges of power grid development, and puts forward the ideas and major goals of power grid development in the 13th Five-Year Plan period. It also presents that power grid development should not only ensure power supplies for socio-economic development, but also enhance the grid itself and advocate clean and high efficient energy consumption. As China’s main power flows are transferred from west to east and from north to south, in the development plan of power grids affiliated to the State Grid the infrastructure will be demonstrated as the sending ends located at the Northeast, Northwest and Southwest China while the receiving ends at the North China, East China and Central China. The construction of strong smart grid should be accelerated with the UHV power grid as the mainstay and the coordinated development of power grids at all voltage-levels to promote intensive development of large-scaled coal, hydropower, nuclear power and renewable energy bases, implement large-scaled and long-distance power transmission and achieve optimal energy resources allocation nationwide.

Key words: power grid, development, planning, UHV, 13th Five-Year Plan