BEIJING - Nearly 160,000 households in impoverished areas have gained access to electricity since October last year, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) said on Tuesday.

The commission kicked off a campaign in October 2011 to urge the country's power distributors to improve electric services for residents in poor, rural regions by expanding electricity networks and exploiting solar and wind power, according to a brief statement posted on the SERC's website.

The government invested more than 550 billion yuan ($88.25 billion) in power grid upgrading projects in rural areas from 2006 to 2010, fundamentally improving rural residents' access to electricity, according to the 12th Five-year Plan on Energy Development (2011-2015) released late last month.

Most residents currently without electricity will gain access to it by 2015, the report said.