China's Hubei Province Starts Electricity Rationing

By Wang Ying

Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- China's central province of Hubei, which has the world's largest hydropower station, has started rationing electricity to meet demand during the Olympics and the summer after fuel supplies fell.

The provincial government decided to cut power supplies to the capital city of Wuhan by 34 percent, the city of Huangshi by 31 percent and Huanggang by 16 percent, the local economic commission said in a statement posted on its Web site.

China, facing its sixth year of electricity shortages, mothballed 3 percent of its coal-fired generating capacity as of July 25 after fuel supplies dwindled, State Grid Corp. of China said last week. Coal stockpiles at Hubei's power plants have fallen below the ``caution line'' of 750,000 metric tons, the provincial government said.

``Insufficient coal supplies forced the closure of an increasing number of power plants in the province,'' the commission said. ``We decided to start rationing power supplies from Aug. 5 in order to ensure basic power demand for the summer and Olympics are met.''

Some high-energy-consuming companies will be shut to curb demand, the provincial government said. Supplies to ``small'' steelmakers, petrochemical producers and cement plants will be stopped, it said, without providing details.

Households, agricultural users, hospitals, schools, banks and military agencies will be ensured power, it said.

Caution Line

State Grid said last week 46 percent of the power stations on its network have coal stockpiles below the ``caution line'' or seven days of consumption. More than 1 billion people rely on State Grid for their power.

The coal shortage may worsen in winter as power demand remains high and hydropower output falls to a seasonal low, it said.

China's Shandong province is facing its worst electricity shortage in a decade and is unable to meet a third of the region's power demand, Qilu Evening News reported Aug. 4, citing Shandong Electric Power Corp.

The Three Gorges hydropower station in Hubei had a daily output of 440 million kilowatt-hours yesterday, or 5 percent of the nation's total consumption, the Xinhua News Agency reported today. The generation was for the 24-hour period starting at 8 a.m. yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Wang Ying in Beijing at wang30@bloomberg.net.