What will the people eat if the FARMER does not have the means to produce food itan Cro abc his ‘children: sed a 1 ‘soo cage ing. mythology.comPubjished on Sunday, June 13, 2004 by People's Daily Cntine CHINA: SEVERE ENERGY SHORTAGE warned by Xinhua + Accelerating development of power-intensive machinery, auto, steel and manufacturing sectors, the growing pace of urbanization and low energy efficiency are blamed for China's extensive shortage of energy, which may worsen before 2020. An industrial report of the State Information Center with the National Bureau of Statistics forecasts China will face a more severe power shortage this year than it did in 2003. A total of 24 provincial areas imposed power brownouts in the past few months. in an exclusive interview with Xinhua earlier this week, Xu Dingming, a leading official with the Energy Bureau of the State Development and Reform Commission, said China's output of primary energy was equal to 1.603 billion tons of standard coal last year, up 11 percent over the previous year. But demand outpaced supply as shortages of coal, power and oil were reported in many areas of China, whose economy grew by 9.1 percent last year, and over 7 percent in the two years before 2003. Growing demand Last year saw many coal-fired power plants in China sound the alarm bell of running out of coal, and 22 provincial areas imposed brownouts due to power shortage. China produced 170 million tons of crude oil and imported about 100 million tons of crude and refined oil. ©Copyright & intellectual Properties of RIGKY NATHANIEL,Power Shortage Causes Blackouts Nationwide TWENTY-ONE CHINESE PROVINCIAL POWER GRIDS HAVE BEEN OBLIGED TO IMPOSE BLACKOUTS SINCE THIS JANUARY AS A RESULT OF THE SURGING DEMAND FOR POWER CAUSED BY THE COLD WINTER AND RAPID ECONOMIC GROWTH, THE STATE GRID CORPORATION SAID FRIDAY. Liu Zhenya, general manager of the corporation, said at an on-going work conference that the power load has grown since the winter set In, with the peak generating capacity up te more than 6. 4 lion kwh per day, a year-on- year rise of 16.1 percent. Three regional power grids, covering China's north, northeast and northwest areas, together with 14 provincial power grids, reported the peak power consumption loads in history, Liu said. The gap between the power supply and demand will face further threats in winter from the lower generation of both hydropower and thermal power, because of the shortage of rainfall and coal, he acknowledged. He said the corporation has mapped out specific measures to ease the problem and to ensure power supply during the traditional Spring Festival, China's lunar new year for family reunion. Special checks of power generation security will be launched to guarantee sufficient power for common residents’ daily life, gavernment departments, hospitals, media groups, transportation, mines and other important customers. The corporation will rely on cross-regional power transfer to balance supplies in different areas and direct industrial users to ward off peak consumption times. China's consumption of electric power is forecast to reach 2, 425 billion kwh in 2005, and power shortage will stay above 20 million kilowatts in summer, The corporation is planning to develop an extrachighvoltage power transmission network, which will carry the power from the west to the energy-thirsty east af much lower costs in transportation and environment, Liu said. (Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2005) ©Copyright & intellectual Properties of RIGKY NATHANIEL