18-04-03 China's power demand is expected to jump between 9 and 10 % this year with shortages emerging in many provinces.
"Almost half of the country's provinces and regions have experienced blackouts since the beginning of the year," the State Power Regulatory Commission was quoted as saying.

Periodic blackouts have occurred in the southern province of Guangdong, the eastern provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, China's financial hub Shanghai, the south-western province of Sichuan province and in Chongqing. Power shortages have also gripped the relatively backward north-western provinces of Shaanxi, Qinghai and Ningxia and central Hebei and Shanxi provinces.
"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 tn kWh this year, up 149 bn kWh from last year. Power consumption jumped 17.6 % in the first two months of this year to 264.8 bn kWh as high power-consuming sectors such as metallurgy, transport and textiles grew strongly.
Power firms had to cut off power to residential users at peak hours to guarantee sufficient supply for manufacturers. The power shortages are expected to continue for two or three years.

China must shore up the fragile trans-regional power grids to transmit more electricity for north-eastern provinces to the power-hungry regions to ease the shortfall.
China's economy may have grown 9 % in the first quarter of this year, accelerating from the 8.1 % rise in the fourth quarter of last year.