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Cold snap drives more Chinese regions to give in to electricity crunch

蘋果日報 2020/12/20 05:17


More provinces and cities in China are tightening electricity supply as the cold weather propels usage to record highs.
Jiangxi, Guangxi and the central cities of Chengdu and Xian have recently launched schemes to limit power usage, following earlier moves by Hunan and Zhejiang provinces to put in place similar controls.
Electricity usage in those four areas, as well as in Hubei and Hebei provinces and the municipalities of Chongqing and Beijing, have all broken records.
The shortage was the most serious in the central regions, the State Grid Corporation of China reported on its news platform. Some 144 million kilowatt-hours were guzzled on Monday, the highest in a day so far this winter and a 21% increase from the same period last year. Grids in Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces also saw record consumption of 34.97 million kWh, 31.44 million kWh and 25.48 million kWh respectively.
As a cold snap descended upon the Guangxi autonomous region in recent days, the local grid has seen a 2.61% growth in usage to 26.81 million kWh, also a record in winter. Coal-fired power plants are running at high load levels of 70% to 80%, and users have been asked to refrain from usage during peak hours.
In the southwest, all forty-one 110kV substations in Sichuan province are overloaded during peak periods. Officials have laid out a plan to curb usage.
Chongqing authorities, meanwhile, have warned of a continued rise in power consumption attributed to low temperatures and the sleet. The grid recorded 16.97 million kWh of electricity used on Tuesday.
On the same day, Jiangxi province started imposing limits and encouraged companies to avoid peak-hour usage.
The central regions are particularly hard-hit because coal is scarce and wind and solar power is not an option, according to industry analysts quoted by local media. They believe electricity supplies will remain tight in the future as local governments lack the motivation to build new power facilities.
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