Power shortages in some parts of China will be eased in the near future with limited impact on the economy, an official from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said at a briefing on Monday.
Fu Linghui, a spokesperson for the NBS, said that with the implementation of measures taken by the central government, the strained supply of electricity and coal will be alleviated soon, with the drag on the economy maintained within a manageable range.
Data from September showed that power production in the country has been increased. Power generation in September hit 675.1 billion kwh, a year-on-year increase of 4.9 percent, 4.7 percentage points higher than that of August.
Breaking down the figures, output for thermal power grew by 5.7 percent in September from a year earlier, nuclear power increased by 4.3 percent year-on-year, wind power was up by 19.7 percent, and solar power generation increased by 4.5 percent.
According to the NBS, coal output in September slid 0.9 percent from the previous year to 330 million tons with an average daily output of 11.14 million tons. Imported coal in September grew 76 percent to 32.88 million tons. In the first nine months, China’s coal output grew 3.7 percent year-on-year to 2.93 billion tons, while imported coal reached 230.4 million tons, down 3.6 percent from the previous year.
“The reduced output in September is a result of heavy rains in North China’s Shanxi province, which crippled production in the coal hub. It is expected that coal output will increase significantly in October with incentives to build coal generation capacity,” Lin Boqiang, the director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Monday.
It is expected that the electricity price surge will hit the 20 percent limit allowed by the government in the fourth quarter, while the coal price will remain stable at the current level due to surging electricity prices, Lin noted.
China's National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, had previously loosened restrictions on the country's coal-fired power pricing mechanism in a bid to ease operating difficulties of coal-fired power generation enterprises.
The floating range of market-based electricity transaction prices has been expanded to 20 percent since Friday, compared with a ceiling of 10 percent and a 15 percent floor. Rates for coal-fired electricity for energy-intensive enterprises are not restricted by the 20-percent fluctuation limit.
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