Energy

More power supplies urged to meet household need

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-06-11 11:55

BEIJING -- China's top planner on Friday asked local authorities and energy enterprises to increase power supplies to meet household demand in summer as the country faces a tight power supply.

Liu Tienan, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said during a video conference that local governments and energy enterprises should bring into play current production capacity and work to increase power supplies and lift energy efficiency.

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"The power situation this summer is complicated, not optimistic in general and grave in some regions," according to a statement posted on the NDRC's website after the meeting.

Excessive growth in some high-energy consuming industries and massive use of air-conditioners will evidently lift power demand in summer, the statement said.

However, declining hydropower generation due to drought, reduced coal imports, insufficient capacity of power transmission and higher temperatures in most areas will have a negative impact on power generation and supplies, it said.

Local governments and energy firms should increase coal supplies for power generation for household needs while restricting "unreasonable" energy needs to promote energy saving and emission reduction, he said.

Seventy percent of the nation's electricity needs are supplied by coal-fired power plants.

To ease a severe power shortage, China raised power prices for industrial, commercial and agricultural users across the country's 15 provinces and municipalities by 16.7 yuan ($2.57) per 1,000 kilowatt-hours last month.