Power shortages set to ease

(Shanghai Daily) 13:25, June 14, 2012

Workers check power transmission facilities in Gaobeidian, Hebei Province. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's power shortages may ease this summer due to slowing economic growth andgains in h ydropower output, said the top planning agency. There may be a peak supply shortfall of 18 gigawatts, or a gap of less than 3 percentfrom the m aximum load, said Lu Junling, a deputy inspector at the NationalDevelopment and Reform Com mission, at a press conference yesterday. Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Hebei provinces as well as Chongqing are likely tobe the m ain affected regions. But Lu warned that the smaller gap could prompt some companies in energyintensiveindustries to expand quickly and this may overturn the situation, Lu said. He cited 2009 when China's power use fell in the first seven months but the year ended with a supplyshortage of coal, power and oil. China's power use rose 5.8 percent in the first five months, compared with 12 percentin the sam e period in 2011, amid sluggish economic growth. Fitch Ratings said in a report this week the slowdown in power use may signal a furthercooling i n the economy and resulted in policy easing, like last week's interest rate cuts,the first since Dec ember 2008. A rise in hydropower output since April has cut demand for coal, the fuel that fires themajority of China's power plants, Lu said. Hydropower output rose 36 percent in May,slashing thermal coal demand by 8 million tons, he said. Coal supplies at major power plants stood at 93.13 million tons as of Sunday, up 48.3percent fro m a year earlier.