Shanghai in frizz at hairdressers' electric larceny

BEIJING, CHINA - Shanghai has launched a crackdown on hairdressers, restaurants and residents stealing power from the municipal grid, which is already strapped by severe summer shortages, Xinhua news agency said recently.

More than 1,000 inspectors from the city's power department have teamed up with local police to scour China's economic hub for electricity larceny, 95 percent of which was committed by "residential power thieves," Xinhua said.

"During the campaign, authorities are finding that restaurants and hairdressers located in residential buildings are the most frequent power stealers," it said in a report on its English Web site.

Tampering with power meters to cut high electrical bills was the most common form of power theft in the city, it said.

Heavy use of air conditioners, as Shanghai residents try to beat the heat, has sent power consumption soaring in the city of around 20 million people.

Summer demand in the city has been expected to outstrip supply from local generators by more than 10 percent.

Like many Chinese cities, Shanghai has ordered factories to operate in off-peak hours and told offices and malls to set thermostats higher as it struggles to keep up with growing power demand.

Power theft is making a bad situation worse.

In the first half of this year 11,000 megawatt-hours of power were not paid for, Xinhua said.

Thieves caught in the current crackdown would face fines of up to five times their unpaid fees, but that might not be enough to pull the plug on the crimes, Xinhua said.

"The penalty is too mild to really curb the big power thefts," it said.