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Drought forces SW provinces to ration electricity

By Cai Muyuan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-03-19 14:04

The severe drought in China's southwest region has forced some provinces to ration their electricity, Chengdu Business Daily reported Friday.

Decreasing hydropower generation efficiency caused by the drought forced Sichuan province depend more on coal-fired electricity. Coal stock at some power plants was lower than the alert level of seven days' supply, the report said.

A source with a large-scaled power plant said the generator had only 400,000 tons of coal stock, while it consumed 60,000 tons daily. He worried that if the drought continues, power coal supply would be more strained.

"Sichuan has no plans to ration electricity yet," the newspaper reported, citing sources from the Sichuan provincial commission of economy and information technology. Though some power facilities were faced with insufficient thermal coal stock for seven days, the thermal coal stock of the province still amounts to more than 1.4 million tons.

"If the drought continues, the situation can be quite unpredictable. In previous years, hydropower contributed to two-thirds of the total power consumption, but now it only contributes to one-third. Thermal power is the main force now," the source said.

According to the National Meteorological Center, the drought in the southwest region is likely to continue for the next 10 days, the newspaper said.