Hunan feels the heat of power cuts
Source: Xinhua |
May 12, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ALL the electric gates of modern apartment buildings in Kaifu District of Changsha City are kept wide open. Once closed, they would not be able to open again because of an ongoing power shortage.
Such a scenario is not uncommon in central China's Hunan Province where lives are being disrupted as the government rations power amid a serious electricity shortage.
Hunan will continue to cut power in cities across the province until early June.
A spokesman for the Hunan Provincial Commission of Economy and Information Technology says it's impossible to calculate the number of people affected by the cuts. "Residential buildings are one of six priority areas. Others include hospitals, banks and infrastructure, none of which are receiving enough power."
The power shortage plaguing eastern, central and southern China may hit the country's economic performance.
China's industrial value-added output rose 13.4 percent year on year in April, down from 14.8 percent in March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics yesterday.
Analysts blame the slowdown partly on power shortages that have hit many industry-heavy provinces such as Zhejiang, Guangdong and Jiangsu since mid-April.
"In the short-term, power shortages and cuts in some provinces will slow growth of some heavy industries, including cement, non-ferrous metal, iron and steel, and chemical sectors in those areas," Wang Tao, an economist with UBS Securities, forecasts.
However, Wang says the risk of a severe nationwide power shortage causing a sharp economic slowdown is slim, even though the drought shows little signs of dissipating, prices of coal remain high and electricity demand is yet to reach its summer peak.
Water levels of Hunan's lakes and rivers have hit a record low as rainfall has dropped by more than 50 percent from previous years.
The drought has disrupted drinking water supplies to 320,000 people and 260,000 livestock in Hunan, according to official figures.
With the dropping water levels, hydro-power output also shrank rapidly. The province's hydro-power units are generating only 2.2 million KWH per day, while their designed capacity is 9.4 million KWH per day, according to the State Grid's Hunan branch.
Such a scenario is not uncommon in central China's Hunan Province where lives are being disrupted as the government rations power amid a serious electricity shortage.
Hunan will continue to cut power in cities across the province until early June.
A spokesman for the Hunan Provincial Commission of Economy and Information Technology says it's impossible to calculate the number of people affected by the cuts. "Residential buildings are one of six priority areas. Others include hospitals, banks and infrastructure, none of which are receiving enough power."
The power shortage plaguing eastern, central and southern China may hit the country's economic performance.
China's industrial value-added output rose 13.4 percent year on year in April, down from 14.8 percent in March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics yesterday.
Analysts blame the slowdown partly on power shortages that have hit many industry-heavy provinces such as Zhejiang, Guangdong and Jiangsu since mid-April.
"In the short-term, power shortages and cuts in some provinces will slow growth of some heavy industries, including cement, non-ferrous metal, iron and steel, and chemical sectors in those areas," Wang Tao, an economist with UBS Securities, forecasts.
However, Wang says the risk of a severe nationwide power shortage causing a sharp economic slowdown is slim, even though the drought shows little signs of dissipating, prices of coal remain high and electricity demand is yet to reach its summer peak.
Water levels of Hunan's lakes and rivers have hit a record low as rainfall has dropped by more than 50 percent from previous years.
The drought has disrupted drinking water supplies to 320,000 people and 260,000 livestock in Hunan, according to official figures.
With the dropping water levels, hydro-power output also shrank rapidly. The province's hydro-power units are generating only 2.2 million KWH per day, while their designed capacity is 9.4 million KWH per day, according to the State Grid's Hunan branch.
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