Beijing, Sep 30 (IANS) China may face a power crisis this winter because of a demand spike, stoppage of power generation in some plants and uncertain weather conditions, officials said.
Some power plants in China, which rely heavily on coal for electricity generation, lost money this year because of rising coal prices, which led them to halt power generation during summer, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA).
Figures from cqcoal.com, China’s major coal trading website, showed that the price of coal rose by 17 percent year-on-year.
Demand for coal and natural gas for electricity generation is relatively high during winter, said Jia Fusheng, deputy director-general at the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s top economic planner.
China just went through its peak annual electricity consumption period. From January to August, chemical, building material, ore and steel smelting and non-ferrous metal industries were among the top energy users, consuming 32.6 percent of the country’s total.
