State Grid Corporation of China
China began an initiative to reform the country's power sector in a three-stage process in 1986. In the third and final stage in March 2002 the State Council of the People's Republic of China put into effect a plan to restructure the country's electric power system in order to create competition and separate generation and transmission functions. The State Grid Corporation of China was founded on December 29, 2002, when the restructuring divided the former State Power Corporation of China into two grid companies, five generation groups and four accessorial business companies. The two grid companies created were the State Grid Corporation of China and a smaller China Southern Power Grid Company. At its creation, the company had a generation capacity of 6.47 gigawatts.