China rations electricity supply in southern manufacturing regions as heatwave, economic revival fuel peak consumption

Name: China’s economy expands record 18.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2021
Uploaded: 2021-05-31T11:34:23.000Z
Duration: 2 min 1 s
Description: China’s economy expands record 18.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2021

China Southern Power Grid posted record peak-capacity loading of over 200 gigawatts in the past three weeks, company said in statement on WeChat

Rationing frequency has doubled to two days a week, forcing owners to keep factories running on weekends or resort to diesel generators

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Workers of grid operator China Southern Power Grid inspect power cables connecting transmission towers in Dongguan, Guangdong province in May 2018. Photo: Reuters

Eric Ng

Published: 7:34pm, 31 May 2021Updated: 1:33am, 6 Nov 2022

A heatwave and brisk economic activities have combined to set off record-breaking electricity consumption in southern Chinese provinces, prompting the state-owned power grid operator to ration power to factories and commercial services providers.

“Hot and dry weather and fast industrial power demand growth have resulted in power shortage,” China Southern Power Grid, the dominant electricity distributor in the region, said in statement on its WeChat account. “All of Guangdong province’s 21 prefecture-level cities have started orderly power usage.”

The grid operator recorded peak-capacity loading of more than 200 gigawatts in the past three weeks, according to the statement. About two-thirds of the capacity came from Guangdong, the most populous and developed region in its network.

Its network, which also covers Yunnan, Hainan, Guizhou and the autonomous region of Guangxi, posted a 23.7 per cent year-on-year jump in power dispatch this year through May 29. Guangdong’s power consumption jumped 15.7 per cent compared to the average usage in the same period in the previous two years, it added. In Yunnan, it surged 31 per cent in the January to April period from a year earlier.

China’s economy has built on a blistering 18.3 per cent rebound in the first quarter, as demand rose with more economies being reopened globally. High early-summer temperatures around the region, as experienced by Hong Kong and Taiwan earlier this month, have also fuelled electricity consumption.

02:01

China’s economy expands record 18.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2021

The heatwave, which started three weeks ago, has resulted in a reduction in rainfall and hydropower output in south-western Yunnan province, which is a major supplier of Guangdong’s power needs.

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