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Guangdong Looks to Import Power
Double-digit economic growth is causing Guangdong Province to look to western China and Hong Kong for power resources.
Running at their full load of 25 million kilowatt-hours per day, the South China power grids transmitted 3.958 billion kilowatt-hours into Guangdong from Guizhou, Yunnan and Guangxi during the first seven months of the year.
The figure was up 187 per cent from the same period last year and was close to the total electricity feeding into Guangdong from western China last year, according to Guangdong Power (Group) Corp.
But that's not enough to ease the power shortages caused by the province's booming economy. Guangdong's GDP grew 10.6 per cent to 406.28 billion yuan (US$48.95 billion) during the January-June period, and hit a record on June 5 in the daily power load of over 22 million kilowatts.
For the first time in six years, the province started to purchase power from Hong Kong. Hong Kong sold Guangdong 23.58 billion kilowatt-hours of power from 1979 to 1995.
During the first six months of the year, Guangdong has used 95.91 million kilowatt-hours from Hong Kong.
"To find a stable supplement to our own power production, Guangdong will open its market to western China's power generators," said Zhong Qiquan, the provincial vice-governor, early this week after returning from visits to Guizhou, Yunnan and Guangxi.
He brought back two agreements with Guizhou and Yunnan for sale of electricity to Guangdong over the coming five years.
Although he did not reveal the exact amount of power to be bought, , he said the agreements will be a win-win solution for all the provinces.
To take advantage of abundant hydropower and coal resources, Guizhou has long searched for buyer for its expanded generation capacity. Its electricity generation will grow from 5.25 million kilowatts to 8.3 million in the next five years.
In Guangdong, power from western China will help ease the growing demand for electricity. The province already has the largest 31.6 million-kilowatt installed capacity in China, but will still face a shortage of 15 million kilowatts by 2005, said Zhong.
Following its post-1980s economic boom, Guangdong has set its sights on the cheap and clean power from western China.
The province was one of the initiators, together with the former Ministry of Electricity, Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, who established the South China Electric Power Joint Venture (currently the South Company of the National Power Corporation) 10 years ago to develop hydropower in Southwest China.
Since 1990, Guangdong has invested 2.39 billion yuan (US$288 million) in building power plants and grids in western China, more than any province.
And by the end of last year, the province had spent 4 billion yuan (US$492 million) in buying a total of 17.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from western China.
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