By Sun Xiaohua (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-07-25 09:39

Despite rising power consumption driven by rapid economic development, China's electricity supply will meet the demand this year, even the summer peak, except for South China's Guangdong Province, according to China Electricity Council (CEC).

"Operation of more electricity generators installed last year and frequent transboundary power exchanges will help the country increase its power supply," said Wang Yonggan, secretary-general of CEC.

CEC figures show that by the end of June, China's 6,000-plus power plants had a total installed capacity of 623 million kilowatts, an increase of 107 million kilowatts from last year, or 20 percent.

In power supply, 502 million kilowatts were from thermal power plants, 110 million kilowatts from hydropower and 7.8 million kilowatts from nuclear power.

Among the increased power supply, 1 million kilowatts were contributed by the new No 1 generating unit of Tianwan nuclear power plant in East China's Jiangsu Province.

In the first six months, power exchanges among provinces got more frequent. Beijing, Shanghai, and provinces of Hebei, Liaoning and Guangdong had received more power. The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which increased its power output in this period, will become the country's biggest power supplier in the next few years, according to CEC.

Although in the first six months, hydropower generation hit a three-year low, China's thermal power growth bridged the demand-supply gap, Wang said.

Industrial power consumption accounted for about 76 percent of the national power use, compared with 74 percent last year. Iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, chemicals and construction material industries were the biggest consumers.

However, the growth slowed in June. CEC believes that was because of the country's macro control on heavy industries.

"Guangdong was hit hardest by power shortages for many reasons," said Wang.

Its heavy industries grew fast this year, like iron and steel and non-ferrous metals, widening the demand-supply gap. But there is no room to further increase power supply in the area as the province does not have plans to construct generation units and power transfer from the western region to Guangdong has also reached its limit. Prices of substitutes like oil and gas are also climbing, according to Wang.

"Power shortages in Guangdong will not be eased in the short term. It will actually get worse in the future," Wang said.

CEC estimated that China's annual power consumption will be increased by at least 15 percent and newly launched power generation units will contribute over 90 million kilowatts this year.

However, as CEC pointed out, the power generation sector will face more pressure the rest of this year, especially from the rapid price rise of coal.