China moves to meet people's power needs amid rare shortages

Liu Hongpeng, who grew up in the city, had a rare experience a week ago when electricity suddenly went out in many parts of Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province on Sept. 29.

"On the night of Sept. 23, it suddenly went dark," said Liu, who had to drive to his parents' home to spend the night.

Recently, power supply has been tightened in the provinces of Liaoning, Jilin, Guangdong and other parts of China, affecting production in companies and people's everyday lives.

"Our company's projects in Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangxi and Heilongjiang have been affected by the power cuts, with some projects only operating for nine hours a day," said Peng Shufen, general manager of a tech company in Guangdong.

Experts said structural power shortages are the main reason for power rationing in many places. As thermal power constitutes a majority of the electricity produced in China, the rising price of coal has directly led to power shortages.

"Currently, the price of standard coal has exceeded 1,000 yuan (about 155 U.S. dollars) per tonne, a new high in nearly 20 years," said an executive of a thermal power plant in Liaoning. "With cost of generation more than double, many power plants are reluctant to generate power."

A recovering economy and rising orders for manufacturers also contribute to the strong demand for electricity. Power consumption in China increased 13.8 percent from January to August, mainly due to strong demand by secondary industries, according to Sun Chuanwang, a professor at Xiamen University.

Moreover, the amount of electricity generated by new energy has decreased significantly this year.

Liaoning, which has a wind power installed capacity of 10 million kw, has only generated 70,000 kw this September due to limited wind power. Some water-rich regions have also suffered from droughts this year, causing hydropower output to fall sharply.

In response, central and local authorities have taken a slew of measures to cope with the emergency to meet people's power needs and ensure economic growth and social stability.

The State Grid Corporation of China said Monday it would take comprehensive measures to ensure power supply for people's basic needs and try its best to avoid power cuts.

The company will go all out to guarantee power supply and firmly safeguard the bottom line of power supply to meet people's basic needs and ensure social development and security, said State Grid.

The company will strengthen the distribution of power across its entire network, reasonably arrange the network operation, and ensure that all available generators from power companies connect to the grid.

Work teams have been dispatched to Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, eastern Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Hunan, the National Energy Administration said.

They have conducted on-site supervision and guided local governments and enterprises to implement power supply measures, increase energy supply, and make all-out efforts to guarantee electricity during the coming winter and spring.

Experts said power shortages will gradually ease as China is rich in coal resources and can overcome such challenges. As the temperature in southern China continues to drop, so will the electricity load.

"Power supply has been stable in recent days and there has been no outage. We believe the government will do its best to guarantee power supply. We will also heed the call for saving electricity," said Liu, the Shenyang resident.