Workers climb power lines to complete a transmission grid over the Yangtze River near Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu Province on June 13, 2022. Photo: cnsphoto

China will spare no effort to ease the power supply tightness in Southwest China's Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality with measures such as strengthening unified power dispatching and ensuring the storage and supply of thermal coal and gas, an official from the National Energy Administration (NEA) said on Wednesday.

In an interview with China Energy News, the unidentified official also stressed that the NEA will go all out to ensure the supply of energy and power to meet demand peaks in the summer and winter, while resolutely preventing sudden blackouts.

In the interview, the official listed a number of measures the NEA has taken and plans to take in the future to tackle the weather-triggered power crunch in Sichuan and Chongqing, which experienced the strongest heat wave in decades that directly pushed up air conditioning and other demand for power. 

According to the official, China will give full play to the platform advantages of the power grid, strengthen unified dispatching, and spare no effort to ease the two regions' power supply tightness.

The country will also firmly implement an orderly power usage plan to "keep the bottom line safe" for residential power usage in the two regions, the official noted.

Efforts will also be made to ensure storage and supply of thermal coal and gas, which are crucial fuels for generating power. For example, the NEA will urge coal producers to keep production at high levels, as well as make sure that coal-producing regions shoulder their responsibility for coal supplies.

In the first seven months of this year, China produced 2.56 billion tons of coal, up 11.5 percent year-on-year, the NEA official revealed.

Rising coal output has pushed up inventories at major domestic power facilities and ports. Since August, China's major power facilities have stored more than 170 million tons of coal, up about 80 million tons from a year earlier.

The official noted some other measures that the NEA may take to ensure power supply, such as strengthening monitoring of the power grid's operation, guiding power companies to improve unit operating management, and so forth. 

Facing the challenge of a power crunch, Sichuan and Chongqing have restricted power use by industrial companies to make sure that households have priority. 

Sichuan earlier told 19 out of 21 cities to suspend factory production from August 15 to last Saturday, and later extended the suspension to Thursday. Chongqing joined Sichuan to halt some industrial power supplies from August 17 to Wednesday. 

The hot weather also swept across other regions in China and caused local power supplies to be tight, though maybe to a lesser extent than in Sichuan and Chongqing. According to the NEA official, 21 provincial-level power grid loads have set records.

The official said that China has been pushing forward the construction of major power projects. Since last summer, 180 million kilowatts (kWh) of power have been newly put into operation nationwide.

"We expect that energy consumption will maintain a rising trend in the second half of this year, with demand for coal, natural gas and power increasing further in the winter heating period," the official said, adding that the energy sector will formulate safeguard plans in advance and strengthen power supply capabilities to make sure that people won't be short of power for the winter.