"Bringers of Light" on the Wind- and Snow-lashed Tanggula

At the former detonating test site on the Jinyin Beach grassland in Haiyan County, Qinghai Province, the red slogan “Overcome all difficulties and strive for victory” bears witness to the legacy of the spirit of “Two Bombs, One Satellite.” More than half a century later, this strength in tackling tough challenges has carried on to the front lines of power operation and maintenance on the snowy plateau. In the Tanggula area, with an average altitude of 4,650 meters, seven young team members from the Golmud Operation and Maintenance Branch of State Grid Qinghai UltraHigh Voltage Company have long guarded the QinghaiTibet grid interconnection project, this “electric power sky road.” Recently, during the annual centralized maintenance of the Qinghai section of the ±400 kV Chaila Line, 29yearold Ying Hong was responsible for overall operations and safety management, leading the team over mountains and through valleys to inspect line hazards. The maintenance area is at a high altitude, the weather changes rapidly, and road conditions are poor. The team members need to carry out closeup inspections amid strong winds, low oxygen, and the risk of snowfall. Faced with a complex environment, they insisted on manual line inspections, adjusted the work pace in a timely manner, and completed evacuation before the snow and wind arrived, ultimately finishing the annual maintenance task smoothly. Ying Hong said that their predecessors “forged heavy national equipment for the country” on the Gobi plateau, and now they are safeguarding the smooth operation of the power grid in Tanggula; both are a continued inheritance of the spirit of “overcoming all difficulties.” This young team, named “Tanggula Eagles,” also uses steadfast dedication in this highcold, lowoxygen post to ensure the safety of electricity use in plateau areas.