Shanghai may face power cuts this summer

Shanghai may suffer power failures this summer as the overburdened energy-distribution network of China's largest city lags behind its rapid economic growth, state press reported Friday.

The power supply to 1,000 families and businesses in Pudong New Area, a financial district, had to be cut off briefly on Wednesday after a major transformer collapsed on an abrupt spike in demand, the Shanghai Daily said.

"Such measures will be inevitable this summer, or we will have an even bigger problem," said Li Xinzhang, a spokesman from Shidong Power Supply Co, a major supplier, according to the paper.

In 2007, the city's electricity demand is forecast to increase 10 percent from last year to 21 million kilowatts in peak times, the paper said.

Bottlenecks exist throughout the city where outdated infrastructure is inadequate in meeting demand that has soared with the economy in the past few years, said an official from the city's grid load management centre.

Shanghai has budgeted 20 billion yuan (2.56 billion dollars) in grid improvement this year but almost one third of the projects will not have been completed by the time the summer peak sets in.

The projects have been delayed because of difficulties persuading residents and firms to move to make way for the construction.

State media also reported on Tuesday a serious power shortage in south China's Guangdong province had led to production cuts in many cities in the booming region.

China's economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, said Friday that most of the country would have secure power supplies during the summer but that some areas would not.

It forecast supplies to be tight in Guangdong, as well as the wealthy eastern Zhejiang province, Hainan island in the south, coal-rich Shanxi province in the north and the populous Sichuan province in the west.

The commission did not give a forecast for Shanghai.

Regions that rely heavily on hydro power would also need to be "closely monitored" because of uncertainty in water levels and climate.

China's power consumption grew by 15.5 percent from a year earlier to 976.7 billion kilowatt-hour in the first four months of the year, according to figures from the industrial group China Electricity Council.

Power generation during the same period rose 15.6 percent to 950.7 kilowatt-hour, the official data showed.

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