BEIJING, March 19 (Xinhua) -- China Southern Power Grid plans to step up investment in smart grid construction in the Pearl River Delta region to improve clean energy installation in the upcoming years, China Daily reported Tuesday.

The Guangzhou-based state-owned enterprise will invest more than 170 billion yuan (about 25.3 billion U.S. dollars) from 2018 to 2022 to improve disaster prevention capacity of power grids in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, frequently hit by natural disasters including typhoons, Xu Daming, a spokesperson for the company, told a news conference in Beijing on Monday.

The company vows to ensure central urban areas in Guangzhou and Shenzhen cities will have power outages of less than 30 minutes each year, while other cities such as Zhuhai and Zhongshan will have power cuts of less than one hour annually.

It will also invest more than 20 billion yuan during the period, mostly in the fields of clean energy, direct-current transmission, distributed micro grid, engineering centers and laboratories on energy storage and superconductivity, Xu said.

According to the company, total electricity consumption in the area reached 520 billion kilowatts in 2018 and is expected to hit 700 billion kilowatts by 2035.

The installed capacity for clean energy in the region is expected to reach 80 percent by 2035, the company said.