Power shortages felt across country as economy surges
Power shortages are no longer just being felt in the southern mainland, but are affecting regions throughout the country, according to a China Electricity Council report.
The report on national electricity supply and demand said power crunches affected a dozen provinces and regions in the first six months of the year, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Jiangsu . The other affected areas were Tianjin , Guangdong, Zhejiang , Henan , Hubei , Sichuan , Yunnan , Hainan and Tibet .
The report said China's power consumption reached 1.5 trillion kWh in the first six months of the year, up 15.56 per cent over the same period last year.
Industry used 1.1 trillion kWh in the first six months, up 17 per cent and accounting for about three-quarters of the nation's total power consumption.
The report said electricity production throughout the country had been rising but suppliers were still struggling hard to keep pace with demand.
Power transmission infrastructure was also inadequate and needed to be upgraded.
Inner Mongolia , Yunnan, and Ningxia saw the highest rates of increase for power consumption, registering rises far beyond the 15.56 per cent national average.
The report said demand and supply would be balanced in most regions after summer, with some regions even experiencing excess supply. But the power supply in Guangdong would continue to be tight.
Song Guoqing , a researcher at Peking University's China Centre for Economic Research, said the power shortfall was no surprise.
'The growth in the country's electricity-generation capacity over the past two years has lagged far behind economic growth in the same period,' he said. 'Short-sighted assessments of power demand by electricity authorities should be blamed for the situation.'
Professor Song said the increasing demand for power in northwestern China reflected the economic development of the country's west. But he would not say whether the rising power consumption in the northwest would affect the west-to-east power transmission project designed to boost supplies in more developed parts of the country.
China's economy continued to boom in the first half of the year, with gross domestic product growing by 11.5 per cent year on year, spurring power demand throughout the country.
Manufacturing sources have complained that continued electricity shortages are inflicting serious losses on factories operating in many places, especially the Pearl River Delta.
Critics say the power crunch has hampered their economic activities, with scheduled brownouts forcing factories in many cities to shut temporarily.
To help remedy the situation, China plans to spend about 400 billion yuan building new nuclear power plants by 2020, increasing the amount of installed nuclear power capacity to 40 GW - 4 per cent of total installed capacity.
China now has 11 nuclear reactors in operation capable of producing 8 GW - just 1 per cent of its total power-generating capacity, according to Xinhua.
