China’s State Grid, which on Tuesday announced a close to $1bn investment in Brazil, often refers to itself as the backbone of its homeland.
周二宣布向巴西投资近10亿美元的中国国家电网(State Grid)，常常自称为国家骨干企业。
The state-owned group, which serves more than 1bn people in China and employs 1.5m, is so closely linked to the government it receives a public grading – almost always an “A” – by its state supervisor.
这家国有集团向中国逾10亿人口供电，员工总数达150万，与政府关系极为密切，政府监督部门对它的公共评级几乎永远是A。
Electricity was one of the last sectors to undergo structural reform as China moved away from a planned economy, and State Grid was born from that process in 2002. The reforms also created China Southern Power Grid and five state-owned generators.
在中国脱离计划经济的进程中，电力是最后几个进行结构性改革的领域之一，国家电网于2002年应运而生。此次改革还缔造了中国南方电网(China Southern Power Grid)及其它五家国有供电企业。
But State Grid is by far the most powerful. Headed by Liu Zhenya, a party member who has worked at the company for 40 years, State Grid has steadily consolidated its position and manoeuvred its way into near-total dominance of the country’s multi-billion-dollar smart grid plans.
但国家电网的实力要遥遥领先于其它几家。公司总经理刘振亚是一位共产党员，已经为公司效力了40年。在他的带领下，国家电网稳步巩固了自己的地位，并通过不懈努力，几乎完全主宰了中国数百亿美元规模的智能电网计划。
Named the world’s eighth-largest company by revenues by this year’s Fortune Global 500 list, State Grid had total assets in 2009 of $293.2bn. Profits, however, were a mere 4.52bn yuan ($678m). China’s electricity is plagued by a simple problem of geography – the country’s energy resources are far away from the cities that need them – and the goal of the smart grid is to help solve that.
按收入计算，国家电网在今年的《财富》全球500强企业中排名第八。2009年，公司总资产达2932亿美元，但利润仅有45.2亿元人民币（合6.78亿美元）。中国的电力供应一直受制于一个简单的地理问题——需要能源的城市与供应源间的距离很遥远——而智能电网就是为了解决这一问题。
“Speeding up the building of a strong and smart grid is good for the basic transformation of China’s power development,” Mr Liu said. A better, more efficient grid is key to achieving the environmental goals of the next five-year plan, he said, promising that all areas of China would have basic grid connections by 2012.
刘振亚表示，加快建设一个强大的智能电网，有利于中国电力发展的根本性转变。他说，更好、更有效的电网是实现下一个五年计划环境目标的关键。他承诺，到2012年，中国所有地区都将实现基本联网。
State Grid has said it will spend Rmb1,700bn on grid construction in the next five years and complete the smart grid by 2015. That project will make it the world’s largest consumer of copper, and therefore a key driver of copper prices.
国家电网表示，未来五年将投资1.7万亿元进行电网建设，到2015年建成智能电网。该项目将使国家电网成为全球最大的铜消耗者，由此成为铜价的关键驱动因素。
The power lines that State Grid is building will draw energy from remote corners of the country, for example channelling Tibetan hydropower into urban areas, and also reach beyond China’s borders.
国家电网正在铺设的输电线，将从中国边远地区输电——例如将西藏的水电引入城市地区——甚至还将跨越边界。
A Russia-China transmission line has been under discussions for years, and the company has signed energy co-operation agreements with Mongolia and Kazakhstan.
有关建设一条俄中输电线的讨论已进行了数年。此外，国家电网已经与蒙古和哈萨克斯坦签署了能源合作协议。
The Brazil deal is a different type of venture, however. Rather than securing energy for Chinese cities, the deal is aimed at raising the company’s strategic international presence and securing a profit. “With constant breakthroughs, the company has upgraded Chinese enterprises’ global influence in the field of energy,” according to the company website.
不过，与巴西的协议则是另一种投资方式。此项协议的目的并非为中国城市获取能源供应，而是提升国家电网的国际战略地位及获利。该公司在网站上写道：“国家电网公司……不断取得突破，提升了中国企业在国际能源电力领域的影响力。”
State Grid first went abroad in 2007, when it won an auction as part of a consortium to operate the national grid in the Philippines. More recent overseas efforts have been mixed: the company failed to receive Chinese government approval for a Chilean copper investment this year.
国家电网于2007年第一次走出国门。当时它加入一个财团，赢得了在菲律宾经营全国电网的竞标。该公司后来的海外行动则成败参半：今年，一项投资智利铜矿的计划未能获得中国政府批准。
“The Chinese are becoming more aggressive in making overseas acquisitions and in the future they will be major players in the international power sector,” says Brett King, a partner at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker, which specialises in power deals.
专门从事电力交易的普衡律师事务所(Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker)合伙人布雷特·金(Brett King)表示：“中国在海外收购方面正变得愈发积极，他们今后将成为国际电力领域的主要参与者。”
The Brazilian power sector has not traditionally been a money-spinner for foreign power companies, but for State Grid the returns in Brazil probably look much better than at home, where it barely made a profit last year.
外国电力公司传统上很难在巴西盈利。但对国家电网而言，巴西的回报率可能看起来要比国内好得多——去年，国家电网在中国本土几乎没有盈利。
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