China’s Sichuan province restores power supply to industries
Shanghai, China, Aug 29 (EFE).- China’s central Sichuan province, which in recent weeks had experienced unprecedented power shortages due to drought and soaring temperatures, began to restore power supply to the industrial sector, official newspaper People’s Daily reported Monday.
By Sunday noon, the region had restored power supply to “ordinary industries and businesses,” the daily said.
Power supply to large-scale industries is gradually being restored, apart from the highly energy-intensive industries, and will be fully restored once the water supply to hydropower stations in the province improves, it added.
Hydroelectric plants generate 80 percent of the region’s power.
China’s state-owned electric operator, State Grid, said on Sunday that the power shortages that had plagued Sichuan for the past two weeks have begun to ease due to lower temperatures and increased rainfall.
In the middle of August, the local authorities warned of extreme weather with temperatures reaching their maximum level in 60 years and the lowest rainfall since record keeping began.
The authorities had also urged residents to limit power consumption and the use of air conditioning.
The figures now show an improvement in the situation as the amount of electricity used in cooling systems fell by 52 percent from its peak and hydroelectric production increased by 9.5 percent compared to its lowest level although the authorities warn that hydropower generation capacity “is still at a low level.”
However, the news is not all positive as rainfall forecasts in some parts of China for the next ten days are significantly higher than in normal years, according to the national meteorological agency.
On Sunday, the Ministry of Water Resources and the China Meteorological Administration announced an orange alert – the lowest in the country’s four-tier weather warning system – for possible floods in Sichuan and in the neighboring municipality of Chongqing, also seriously affected by drought and high temperatures. EFE
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