SHANGHAI: Put away the candles, Shanghai now boasts an upgraded power system, which the city's electricity supplier boasts will combat blackouts with the simple flick of a switch.

The coastal city's once ailing power supply system has been vulnerable to typhoons and thunderstorms, and been strained by rapid economic growth and infrastructure development.

But the Shanghai Electric Power Co said it had finally built a power blackout restart system after years of research and development.

Now, if the city suffers a massive power blackout or grid breakdown, the company would be able to immediately restart power supply, it said.

In the event of a blackout, electricity in the grid's power "units" will be gradually powered up to restore the entire grid.

The Shanghai Electric Power Co commenced work on the blackout restart project in 2002, a project experts have dubbed a "milestone for Shanghai".

In recent years, Shanghai has spent 20 billion yuan ($2.6 billion) annually in grid construction and upgrades.

Consumer demand of power continues to rise as more households use electricity-hungry appliances such as air conditioners.

Since 2002, Shanghai has suffered from a power shortage, which forced the city to prioritize power supply to households and ration it to businesses in peak summer days.

Companies have had to even reschedule their production to night hours or weekends to lower the power use in peak daytime hours.

The power supplier predicted that daily power loads for the coming summer would for the first time use as much as 20 megawatts and could even go as high as 21.5 megawatts.

This demand will be about 2 megawatts higher than the same period of last year.

(China Daily 02/27/2007 page4)