Searing Heat Threatens Power Supply in Yangzte River Delta

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, August 06, 2003

Searing Heat Threatens Power Supply in Yangzte River Delta

Since the end of June, most areas of the Yangzte River Delta have been hit by high temperatures. Statistics show that the temperature in the area has hit record highs for the past 50 years, which has led to heavy power use in the area. Power shortage has become a serious problem.

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The Yangzte River Delta, one of China's most prosperous regions, has been frequently hit by blackouts this summer due to the most searing heat encountered in the past fifty years.

Since the end of June, most areas of the Yangzte River Delta have been hit by high temperatures. Statistics show that the temperature in the area has hit record highs for the past 50 years, which has led to heavy power use in the area. Power shortage has become a serious problem.

The Yangzte River Delta, which includes the Shanghai Municipality, Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces, contributes 18.5 percent of China's gross domestic product (GDP). The area shows a strong trend for economic integration and experts agree that it will rise to become the world's sixth largest city group.

However, power shortages have threatened economic development in the area. On July 14, the power load in Zhejiang Province reached nearly 15.9 million kW while the capacity of the provincial power grid is only 10 million kW. The province has to make up the gap by purchasing from other grids, provinces and municipalities.

According to Jiangsu Power Company, Jiangsu Province will facea shortage of nearly 4.15 million kW in its power generation capacity on average every day this Summer and the highest power load of the province is expected to reach 24.4 million kW at certain times.

Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang, experienced similar power shortages in the early 1990s. Over 300 users were blacked out one day in the most serious case. To tackle the power shortage problem, Hangzhou municipal government spends 150,000 RMB yuan (18,137 US dollars) every day to encourage enterprises to save power.

Many hotels and restaurants in the prosperous region have fallen into darkness due to the electricity shortage. On July 22, the Hangzhou municipal government issued a new regulation asking commercial electricity users, including hotels, large stores, supermarkets and amusement sites, to turn on only half of their cooling equipment. Lights for advertisements were all turned off during periods of strongest load.

"Some of our production lines have almost stopped in order to spare more power to Hangzhou citizens though numerous orders are coming in", said Shen Xiangxi, board director of Hangkang Medicine Company in Hangzhou.

In Jiangsu, over 200 big energy consumers, including steel and fertilizer enterprises, were ordered to suspend production and carry out their annual overhauls for nearly three months starting from June 20.

In Shanghai, nearly 1,000 enterprises were required to restricttheir use of electricity. The Shanghai municipal government has appealed to its citizens to set their air-conditioners one degree higher in order to save electricity.

The power shortage is a warning that infrastructure development in the Yangtze River Delta lags far behind economic development.

"We realized this problem two years ago and had made appeals tothe government many times to build more power plants," said Chen Jimin, general manager of the Zhejiang Provincial Power Company.

Governments at all levels in the Yangzte River Delta have moved to take urgent measures to address the problem. Zhejiang has decided to build a large power plant in Lanxi with an investment of 10 billion RMB yuan (1.2 billion US dollars).

Experts also suggested participation of private enterprises in small power plants to supplement the power supply.

The power supply shortage might not be the only factor limiting development of the Yangzte River Delta as shortages of water and land resources might also hit the area in the near future, warned experts.

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