Mysterious China power crunch sees potentially millions of homes in the dark

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The widespread power crisis in China threatens to become the “new normal” as the country’s manufacturers and citizens alike face a potentially cold, tough winter.

Many provinces in the country have started supplying electricity due to lack of coal supplies, rising energy demands from manufacturers and consumers, and stricter emissions standards.

China, which is increasingly dependent on coal, has ordered provinces to limit electricity consumption as it prepares to host the Winter Olympics and attempts to curb emissions.

This has led to unannounced power cuts for citizens in several provinces, who have taken to social media to complain about the lack of heating and public infrastructure, including non-working lifts and traffic lights.

A power company said the power crisis would become the “new normal” and warned of power cuts until next spring, the BBC reported.

However, according to the broadcaster, the post was later deleted.

The most severe effects of the power crisis have been seen in the country’s northeastern industrial region, which includes Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces.

According to Reuters, the city of Huludao told residents not to use high energy-consuming electronics, including microwaves and water heaters, during peak periods.

A resident of Heilongjiang’s Harbin city told the news agency that many shopping malls close at 4 p.m. earlier than usual.

Twenty-three people were hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning after ventilation was cut off at a metal-foundry factory following a power outage in the northeastern city of Liaoyang on Friday, state media reported. However, there is no news of any death.


The impact of the power crisis has started showing in the industry as well. Major suppliers to Apple and Tesla halted production at some plants.

Power-intensive sectors such as aluminum smelting, cement manufacturing, steel making and fertilizer production have also been hit.

At least 15 Chinese companies that make goods from aluminum and chemicals said the power cuts have curtailed their production.

The crisis will also affect industries such as furniture, soybean and dye producers.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley said on Monday that seven per cent of the country’s aluminum production capacity has been affected and 29 per cent of its cement production has suffered.

This, even as the country deals with a trade dispute with Australia, the second largest global coal supplier, curbs its coal imports.

Macquarie Group economists Larry Hu and Xinyu Ji said China’s economy is “more export-driven than at any time in the past decade” and that some have failed to consider official energy targets, according to the Associated Press.

Adding to the Chinese government’s woes, global leaders will soon meet for the UN Environment Conference in the southwestern city of Kunming in October, followed by the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, in November, calling on the country to stick to its energy pressure is increasing. Efficiency target.

While the power crisis has taken its toll on citizens only this month, early signs of distress have been seen since March, when the country started seeing spikes in electricity prices, Reuters reported.

Authorities in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region in northern China, ordered heavy industries, including an aluminum smelter, to curb use so that the province can meet its first-quarter energy use targets.

Similar requests were made in the province of Guangdong, a major exporting powerhouse in the south of the country.

Thus, the power crisis has jolted the near-term economic forecasts for the country, even as a sharp cut in the country’s growth outlook.

Nomura cut China’s third and fourth quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecasts to 4.7 percent and 3 percent, respectively, from its earlier forecasts of 5.1 percent and 4.4 percent.

Nomura also lowered its full-year forecast from 8.2 per cent to 7.7 per cent.

“The power-supply shock in the world’s second-largest economy and largest producer will impact and affect global markets,” analysts at the Financial Holding Group said in a September 24 note.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley have warned that China’s GDP growth could drop even one percent in the fourth quarter if production cuts are prolonged.

China has said it aims to peak its carbon emissions by 2030 and become a net-zero economy by 2060.

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Credit: www.independent.co.uk /