China Faces Power Shortgage -- Demand Jumps

"Almost half of the country's provinces and regions have experienced blackouts since the begining of the year," the newspaper quoted the State Power Regulatory Commission as saying.

Periodic blackouts had occured in the southern province of Guangdong, the eastern provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, China's financial hub Shanghai, the southwestern province of Sichuan province and in Chongqing, the newspaper said.

Power shortages had also gripped the relatively backward northwestern provinces of Shaanxi, Qinghai and Ningxia and central Hebei and Shanxi provinces, it said.

"The strained power supply in these areas since the end of last year is mainly due to insufficient construction of power generators," the newspaper said.

"Robust industrial production, falling water supplies for hydro-electricity generators and disruptions of coal supplies will also take their toll," it said.

Electricity demand in China, the world's second largest electricity market after the United States, was forecast to hit 1.8 trillion kilowatt hours this year, up 149 billion kilowatt hours from last year, it said.

Power consumption jumped 17.6 percent in the first two months of this year to 264.8 billion kilowatt hours as high power-consuming sectors such as metallurgy, transport and textiles grew strongly, the newspaper said.

Power firms had to cut off power to residential users at peak hours to guarantee sufficient supply for manufacturers, it said.

The power shortages were expected to continue for two or three years, the newspaper said.

China must shore up the fragile trans-regional power grids to transmit more electricity for northeastern provinces to the power-hungry regions to ease the shortfall, it said.

China's economy may have grown nine percent in the first quarter of this year, accelerating from the 8.1 percent rise in the fourth quarter of last year, state media have said. ($1

8.277 Yuan)