The power grid of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality has been operating at full capacity for many days, but is still unable to meet the high demand caused by sustained hot weather.

According to sources with the municipal power supply company on Friday, the grid had a demand of 4.28 million kilowatts at 9:33 p. m. Thursday, setting a historical record. It was unable to supply a gap of anywhere from 100,000 kilowatts to 200,000 kilowatts, which had to be met by emergency aid from the neighboring Sichuan power grid.

Under the sustained heavy load, power transmission routes in the downtown areas have had repeated failures, including the blowout of fuses and electric kilowatt-hour meters and breakdown of transformers.

To ease the power shortage, the municipal power supply company has signed contracts to buy electricity from the power grids of east China's Jiangxi province, southwestern Guizhou and Sichuan provinces, and the Central China grid.

Owing to relentless sweltering weather, a power shortage has also been reported in some other areas in China, including east China's Shanghai municipality and Zhejiang province.

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