China saw an acute tension between electricity supply and demand last year with some regions even experiencing power-outages and supply restrictions at peak times.

With this summer coming, whether China can ensure a secure, stable and reliable power supply has become the focus of both the central government and the whole society.

Shi Yubo, vice chairman of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, China's electricity watchdog, said Thursday that China will endeavor to meet this year's peak power demand.

Based on overall judgment, electricity will remain in short supply nationwide during the coming summer peak-time, said Shi.

But the whole situation is expected to be better than last year as the shortage of power will be somewhat less acute and conditions of major power grids will improve. The scope and scale of power shut-down and supply restricting will see a decline and the maximum shortfall of power supply during the coming summer peak-time will be around 25 million kilowatts (kw), lower than that of 2004, said Shi.

According to Shi, East China and South China boast the most booming economic regions in the country and still will see a tense power supply this year with the maximum shortfall of power supply predicted to reach 12 million kw and 8 million kw respectively during the coming summer peak-time.

The maximum shortfall in North China, Central China and Northwest China will be the least tense of 3 million kw, 1 million kw and 1 million kw respectively. Only the power supply and demand of Northeast China will be basically balanced.

Shi said power generating capacity, economic growth, coal supply and natural conditions such as temperature and precipitation are major factors affecting China's electricity supply and demand situation.

According to statistics, China will witness an additional generating capacity of about 65 million kw to be put into operation in 2005 to increase the total installed generating capacity nationwide to over 500 million kw.

But as most of the additional generating capacity will be put into operation in the latter half of this year, the coming summer peak-time is not expected to benefit much from it, said Shi.

Rapid economic growth is the major factor contributing to China's soaring power demand, said Shi.

The total electricity consumption of China reached 2,173.5 billion kilowatt-hour in 2004 with industrial electricity covering 74 percent and contributing 80 percent to the total growth.

Despite the total power generating capacity rose by 13 percent in Jan.-March period over the same period of last year to 544.928 billion kw/h, the first quarter of this year saw a rapid growth of electricity consumption, with the total reaching 550.564 billion kw/h, rising 13.38 percent over the same period of last year.

As coal-fired power generation accounting for nearly 70 percent of installed generating capacity of China, whether there is a plentiful coal supply is another factor influencing the power generation of the country, said Shi.

According to Shi, with China taking further efforts to ensure coal supply, the whole situation got relieved to some extent as the total coal supply for power generation increased by 14.54 million tons and storage rose by 7.5 million tons.

But the ongoing nationwide move to improve coal mine security conditions will affect the coal supply situation to some extent, he said.

Shi said the electricity consumption of conditioners is an important factor contributing to the summer power use peak.

In Shanghai Municipality, the maximum power load is expected to reach 18 million kw with 7 million kw contributed by conditioners used in the summer.

So if the temperature of this summer is not too high, the power supply situation will be relieved to some extent, said Shi.

Furthermore, as China boasts a hydropower capacity of nearly 100 million kw, the adverse water supply in recent years has affected the whole power generating capacity to some extent.

China will try its best to ensure power supply of the coming summer peak-time by enhancing power supply security, improving the demand-side management, with avoiding and staggering peak-time as the preferred measures, increasing the intensity of electricity transactions across regions and provinces to optimize the allocation of electricity resources and strengthening supervision to maintain a proper electricity market order, said Shi.

Coal, electricity, oil and transportation have become major factors restricting China's economic growth in recent years.

As for the electricity sector, Shi said, keeping a proper growth of electricity demand, improving the structure of power generation by increasing the use of renewable, clean and new energies such as hydropower, nuclear power, natural gas and wind, and improving the energy use efficiency are emphasis of macro-

economic control for electricity in a long run. 
 

Source: Xinhuanet