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BEIJING: China has run into a regional power shortage with multiple towns curbing electricity use and imposing rationing in recent days, sparking a wide range of discussions on Chinese social media platforms, as the country scales its green energy scale to expand the share of renewables in its energy mix to meet its ambitious climate goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2060.
China’s top economic planner promised on Monday at a press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council that China’s energy supply is generally fluid and orderly and that civilian use of electricity will be guaranteed.
Power shortages and rationing have been experienced in central China’s Hunan province and east China’s Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces, affecting industrial and civil energy use.
Certain areas in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region were also affected and one of the four major Chinese cities, Guangzhou, in south China’s Guangdong province, also experienced a brief blackout on Monday morning. , although a failure in the electrical cables instead of a poor power supply caused the malfunction. .
In Hunan, energy-intensive sectors such as copper smelting are among the worst hit.
Prices for a large number of commodities, including aluminum, copper, cement and steel, are at their best levels for the year as countless factories and plants in China are increasing their production capacity after receiving a large number of orders placed by customers of
worldwide for the foreign market, in the wake of the pandemic that has paralyzed manufacturing in many countries and regions.
In Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan, the central heating of some office buildings has stopped working. A white-collar employee surnamed Yang told the Global Times that central air conditioning has stopped for a few days, but fortunately some heaters can still be used to cope with the cold weather.
A manager of Changsha Jiangtong Copper Co told the Global Times that power rationing has caused “destructive damage” to the sector.
“While the exact losses must be calculated taking into account the dynamics of supply and demand, the current rationing could potentially lead to millions of yuan in operating profit losses,” said the manager who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A Hunan Yincheng Aluminum Co manager, surnamed Deng, said they received a notice from authorities that electricity use should be kept below 200 kilowatt hours.
“We have two transformers that can provide electricity with 80 kilowatt hours, which can help us to operate under electricity restrictions,” the manager told the Global Times.
The gas for heating aluminum furnaces is also occasionally cut off. “We have informed the local authorities of the situation, but they said they received a notice to impose a brake on electricity and gas to guarantee priority supply to civil demand,” Deng said.
Deng said bad weather is to blame. “We have been losing money and we don’t know when the sidewalk will be lifted,” Deng said.
Not all industrial companies are affected. A staff member at high-speed train manufacturer CRRC told the Global Times that the company’s production is not affected.
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