Companies Struggle through Power Shortage

The electricity shortage China is facing during 2011 became more serious come July. Local power utilities have placed tens of thousands of companies power brownout plans.

Heifei, the capital of Anhui province, alone used over 2.7-gigawatts at the beginning of July. It was a new record. Anhui power authorities placed 2,352 companies on power brownouts plans. Only 400 companies last year had to participate in rationing plans.

Maanshan Iron, a key enterprise in Hefei, said that one-third of its steel rolling lines had to halt production since May. Maanshan Iron is on the power brownouts list. More production lines at the steel maker may be idled in the future.

A manager of Hefei Changqing Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd said the company had to move production schedules to nighttime hours. “Anhui has always been a a coal export province. This year, though, Anhui has needed to import 8 million tons. Though coal output increased 2.2-percent in Anhui, power generation increased 15.8-percent,” said Zhang Haige, vice director of Anhui Economy and Informatization Committee.

According to Xinhua Net, the electricity gap in Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Fujian will be 19-gigawatts by the end of the year. The gap for the entire country will be 40-gigawatts.

The economist said the only way for the companies to continue to operate without disruption is to improve technology and use high-end clean energy.

Source:

http://firm.workercn.cn/c/2011/07/09/110709093700335627769.html