China’s Sichuan Province yesterday activated its highest emergency response to deal with “extremely outstanding” power supply deficiencies, adding to manufacturers’ woes in the region as they shut down factories.
The hottest, driest summer since Chinese records began 61 years ago has wilted crops and left reservoirs at half of their normal water level.
That, along with record electricity demand, has caused gaps in Sichuan’s power supply, the province said in a statement.
Photo: Reuters
This is the first time Sichuan has initiated a top-level emergency response after it introduced its energy supply contingency plan in January. Measures include starting emergency generators to first meet the power demand of households, important users and regions, and maximizing output of oil, gas and coal.
Sichuan is one of China’s most populous provinces and a key manufacturing hub for electronic vehicle cells and solar panels. Companies including Toyota Motor Corp and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (新能源科技) have already closed plants in the region for several days.
Offices and shopping malls in Sichuan have been ordered to turn off lights and air-conditioning, while the subway in the provincial capital, Chengdu, said it turned off thousands of lights in stations.
Shanghai suspended landscape lighting for today and tomorrow near the Huangpu River, including The Bund waterfront area, to save power usage.
According to Sichuan’s energy contingency plan, a level 1 emergency response allows it to seek help from the state council, and increases the frequency of communications between energy suppliers and the provincial government.
The current peak electricity demand load in Sichuan jumped to 65 million kilowatts, an increase of 25 percent over the previous year, local authorities and power grid officials told a news briefing on Saturday.
At the same time, water inflows for hydro power generation more than halved, and the main reservoirs that secure power consumption of load centers such as Chengdu has reached dead storage level.
Meanwhile, the Global Times quoted Chinese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Tang Renjian (唐仁健) as saying that the coming 10 days is a “key period of damage resistance” for southern China’s rice crop.
Emergency steps would be taken to “ensure the autumn grain harvest,” which is 75 percent of China’s annual total, Tang said on Friday, according to the report.
Authorities would “try to increase rain” by seeding clouds with chemicals and spray crops with a “water retaining agent,” the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on its Web site.
The governments of Sichuan and neighboring Hubei Province say thousands of hectares of crops are lost and millions damaged.
Hubei’s government declared a drought emergency on Saturday and said it would release disaster aid, while the Sichuan government said 819,000 people face a shortage of drinking water.
Additional reporting by AP
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