Jul 07, 2005 - BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

An electricity shortfall of 25m kwh has been predicted by the State Power Grid Corporation (SPG), the China Securities Daily reported here Thursday [7 July].

To remedy the situation, the largest power grid company in China has decided to input more than 100bn yuan (about 12.09bn US dollars) on the construction and renovation of power grids.

Of the 20,000-km-long transmission lines to be built this year, transmission lines of 5,556 km has been put to use by the end of June, said the article.

SPG statistics showed that the first quarter has seen a total of 26 provincial power grids temporarily switch off electricity supply to alleviate power shortage.

According to a forecast by the North China Power Grid Company, the region around Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan of north China's Hebei Province suffered a combined power shortfall of 1.85m kwh.

In a breakdown, the maximum capacity for Beijing power grids hit 10.7m kwh, up 13.4 per cent over a year earlier, causing a shortfall of more than 1m kwh. The maximum capacity for Tianjin power grids reached 6m kwh, facing a shortfall of half a million kwh.

Deputy general economic administrator Xie Zhiguo of the Beijing Power Company said that the capital of China has mapped out a series of measures to avoid the power demand at rush hours.

A peak price has been put to pilot use among industrial consumers and will be practiced among all users by 2008 except residents, subway, trolley buses and farming irrigation, he said.

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