Luo Li, born and raised in central China's Hunan Province, remembers his father telling him how poor he was growing up more than a generation ago.

Luo's father, three sisters and one brother shared just one kerosene lamp for light -- the family had no electricity.

Today, Luo is a 28-year-old engineer, not only the light in his father's eyes, but also one of the people responsible for helping electricity reach about 20-percent of the 70 million people in the province.

Luo is a chief engineer at the Shaoshan Ultra High Voltage Power Conversion Station just outside of the town of Xiangtan.

Hunan is a region hungry for power to feed its residents and factories.

However, it is a poor province with no hydroelectric power and little coal.

The station is marvel of engineering.

Electricity comes via an ultra high voltage utility line that stretches more than 2,300 kilometers from Gansu Province in northwest China, where there is an abundance of renewable solar and wind power.

Chinese authorities at the conversion plant tell me it is the longest UHV power utility line in the world.

Luo is able to explain not only how the system works, but why it is so efficient.

The greater the voltage, the less power is lost in transmission, and once the 800,000 volts reaches the load station in Hunan, it is converted to alternating current and sent throughout the province.

Despite the large numbers of transmissions towers, filters, and lines that crisscross the region, there are only about 30 people working full-time at the Shaoshan plant to keep the site up and running.

It is a very tangible sign of how much China has changed since reforms began 40 years ago.

Luo says when his father was growing up, the plea coming from Hunan Province was simple: "Please find a way to bring electricity here, and help lift this area out of poverty."

As reforms kicked in, and manufacturing became the economic linchpin of China, coal-burning power plants belching harmful greenhouse gases began dotting the landscape.

Now the challenge is not only keeping electricity flowing -- considering it reaches about 99 percent of the nation's 1.4 billion people -- but to find a way to do it in a more environmentally-friendly fashion.

Enter ultra high power transmission.

The challenge is to keep the transmission line running at exactly 800,000 volts, according to Luo.

There is not enough wind and solar power to do that, so coal burning plants supplement some of the energy.

In the winter, Luo tells me much of Hunan is bone-chilling cold.

This is not just due to temperatures dipping below freezing; one must also add in the fact that it is rainy, misty, or cloudy throughout much of the winter.

It's hard to imagine what it must have been like, having five children in a small house, with only a kerosene lamp to break the darkness.

Luo believes China is truly stepping into the light.

And with a developing industry such as ultra high voltage transmission, Luo will be one of the people who helps with the changing face of China in the 21st century.

(Top photo credit: Shaoshan Convertor Station)