Officials in Shanghai warn that looming summer power shortages pose a "bottleneck for the city's rapid development," reports said yesterday.
Shanghai has encouraged factories to suspend production during peak hours for electricity demand and send workers home when the mercury hits 35?C. Offices and shopping centers have been told to cut back on air conditioning, escalators, and lighting.
Officials warned the shortfalls could slow torrid economic growth and harm Shanghai's competitiveness, newspapers and the city government's Web site said.
"Insufficient energy supply and power shortages have become a bottleneck for the city's rapid development," Shanghai's vice mayor was quoted saying at a rally on Sunday.
Efficient energy use is key to "enhancing the city's industries' international competitiveness," he said.
According to the city government's Web site, Shanghai forecasts a 10 percent to 15 percent rise in demand for electricity that will leave it short of 4 million kilowatts between this month and September.
That estimate was up sharply from previous figures of a 2.2 million kilowatt shortfall.
On top of existing measures, Shanghai will also halt preferential electricity prices for calcium carbide and ferroalloy producers to encourage them to save power, the Web site said.
Government offices, commercial outlets, office buildings and entertainment venues have been told to set their air conditioning at no lower than 26?C, it said.
Power-saving measures have already been felt in industry, although it isn't clear what ultimate effect that might have on economic output.
Thousands of companies have already shifted production to nights and weekends to avoid the peak demand hours of 9am to 11am, 1pm to 3pm and 7pm to 9pm. Offices have been told they could be forced to cut power use by 20 percent with just five minutes warning.
To try to mitigate the effect of cuts on production, factories can add work days during cooler weather, the government's Web site said.
Scheduled power cuts have grown common across much of southern China in recent months as the national grid struggles to meet the booming economy's massive demand for electricity. Over the winter, electric heating was cut at shopping malls and some homes, and factories were told to reduce production to no more than six days a week.
China's economy is expected to grow at an annual rate of 9.8 percent in the first half of this year, far above the 7 percent target.
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