Statistics from the China Southern Power Grid revealed that between January and June, some 14.16 billion kwh of electricity has been transferred, up 56.2 percent or 5.1 billion kwh over the same period of last year.

The largest beneficiary province Guangdong was reported to have got a total of 11.34 billion kwh, up 73.6 percent over the same period of last year.

Given the country's severe imbalance in power generating capacity, the Chinese government started a massive "West-to-East Power Transfer" project in 2000. Every year, electricity is sent from big power generators such as Qinghai, Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Shaanxi to eastern big energy consumers like Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin.

For the latter half of the year, the China Southern Power Grid predicted that some 23.54 billion kwh of electricity or up 60 percent over the first six months would be transferred.

In contrast with past power transfer practices, industrial experts believed this year witnessed not only a rise in the total electrical voltage transferred from west to east but also more frequent reversed transferring operation.

For instance, when Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the west suffered a power shortage during the Spring Festival which fell on Jan. 22, Guangdong Province diverted electricity of more than 500 million kwh to help Guangxi through its power crunch. This is because Guangdong sometimes has a surplus power in winter. As the country's power outage menace still persists, China is now striving to improve its power management capacity and be more flexible and efficient.