Mainlanders can be forgiven for having the awful feeling of deja vu as the national media is again ablaze with reports and analysis pieces detailing how the power shortage is sweeping across many provinces.
It is hitting not only the economic powerhouses including Zhejiang, Guangdong, Chongqing, Jiangsu, Hunan and Hubei, but is also spreading to less developed provinces such as Guizhou and Qinghai .
In many parts of Zhejiang, power rationing has been introduced not only to factories but also, increasingly, to residential compounds and office towers. Indeed, the power shortage has become almost an annual ritual in recent years, but this year it is getting much worse. The shortage started last month, well ahead of the normal peak consumption season in summer, and is threatening to bring much more serious disruptions.
State media has warned that much of the mainland is bracing for the worst power shortage since 2004.
It is interesting to note that the power shortage started to kick in at a time when the central government started to report signs of moderation in economic activities as evidenced by the significant slowdown in industrial production from 14.8 per cent in March to 13.4 per cent in April. Naturally, officials have claimed credit for the tightening policies, but some have already speculated that the slowdown was due more to the power shortage.
As usual, the officials attributed the causes to a jump in electricity consumption, insufficient coal stocks at power plants, and lower water levels for hydropower generation. In particular, most media reports focus upon the long-standing issue concerning those coal- or oil-fired power plants, which are losing money and have little incentive to generate power because of the soaring coal and oil prices on the one hand and the government-set low electricity prices on the other. More than 80 per cent of the mainland's power is generated by fossil fuel.