By Wang Xu and Huang Zhiling (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-01-29 07:26

The authorities are gearing up to restore fuel and power supplies in regions hit by the worst snowstorm in decades, officials said yesterday.

Heavy snow and sleet have stricken central, southern and eastern China in the past few days, paralyzing railways, roads and airports in eight provinces including Hunan, Anhui and Jiangsu.

An electricity pylon lies crumpled on the ground on Saturday in Danzhai county, Guizhou province, after being weighed down by ice and snow. Wu Ruxiong

The snow has severely disrupted transport and logistics, forcing a number of power plants to suspend operations because of fuel shortages.

"The situation is severely threatening people's livelihoods," Zhu Hongren, a senior official from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said yesterday.

China, which generates 78 percent of its electricity from coal, suspended 7 percent of its coal-fired power plants after snowstorms disrupted the transportation of fuel.

Zhu said 17 provinces have suffered power shortages and the closure of coal-fired power plants has forced 13 provinces to ration power.

The government should make ensuring fuel supply a "top priority", Premier Wen Jiabao said at a conference held over the weekend.

To ease the coal shortage, the Ministry of Railways increased shipments to 36,000 train carriages a day on Saturday, Railway Minister Liu Zhijun said, an increase of 30 percent on the same time last year.

The Railway Ministry also said yesterday it will work closely with power plants in snow-hit areas and increase coal transportation.

The ministry said it moves 33,000 train carriages of coal for power plants each day, the highest level so far.

The NDRC is also stepping up efforts to increase fuel supply.

It told Sinopec and CNPC, China's two largest oil producers, to ramp up fuel production and distribution yesterday to help ease the fuel shortage.

The commission also told local governments to guarantee electricity supplies to residents first, and limit supplies to companies that are heavy polluters or known for their high energy consumption.

Hunan province was among the worst hit areas by the snow. Its Huanghua Airport in the provincial capital Changsha has been closed since Friday.

Airports in at least 10 cities, such as Wuhan, Nanjing and Changzhou, were closed temporarily yesterday.

Meanwhile, power lines from the Three Gorges hydroelectric dam in Hubei province to Shanghai were damaged in the snowstorms, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

In the Sichuan capital Chengdu, blackouts were predicted as power companies struggled to meet demand for electricity following incessant snowfall since the beginning of the month.

The province's power company has said it is facing an electricity shortage of 70 million kWh.

Li Chuncheng, Party chief of Chengdu, said the city has enough power to meet only two-thirds of the demand from the public and local businesses.

Priority has been given to the public, he said.

The provincial government said there have been nearly 20,000 blackouts in the province this month.

(China Daily 01/29/2008 page3)