Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 28 -
Question: Why more "blackouts"?
Can the subsequent power supply be guaranteed?
Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters Dai Xiaohe, Zhu Han, Wu Tao, Fang Wenyu
Power rationing and production suspension are hot words of the moment.
In the context of tight power supply, many places across the country have issued notices of power rationing, and most areas have focused on enterprises, and some enterprises have staggered production or stopped production.
What is the power supply situation in these areas?
Why the power cut?
Can the subsequent power supply be guaranteed?
In response to these issues, reporters from "Xinhua Viewpoint" conducted an investigation.
Power curtailment companies in many places stop production
Recently, Liaoning, Jilin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and other places have successively issued notices of orderly use of electricity or curtailment.
As of the 28th, more than 20 listed companies have issued announcements related to power curtailment and production suspension, including Mona Lisa, Diou Home Furnishing, Chenhua, Zhongnong United, Limin, etc.
Taoli Bread announced that nine wholly-owned subsidiaries located in Jiangsu, Guangdong, Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong, Tianjin, and Heilongjiang received local electricity curtailment notices.
Among them, Jiangsu Taoli will cut off power production from September 25 to 30; the remaining 8 companies have cooperated with the power curtailment measures in accordance with the relevant notices of the local orderly use of electricity.
In some serious areas, the phenomenon of "opening two and stopping five" or even "opening one and stopping six" has appeared in some serious areas.
"The company has only produced one day in the last week. The Mid-Autumn Festival holiday on September 21, and power cuts on September 22, 23, 24, 26, and 27 have halted production, which has made the company's inadequate production capacity worse." Dongguan, Guangdong Said Wang Yong, general manager of Jishuo Industrial Co., Ltd.
"Since May and June this year, power rationing has always existed. It’s just that the restrictions have been more severe recently. Not only in Guangdong, but the company’s projects in Hunan, Jiangxi, Heilongjiang and other places have also been shut down due to power rationing. In some places, equipment can only be used a day. Turn on for 9 hours." Peng Shufen, general manager of Guangdong Taiquan Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd., told reporters.
"Our park received a notice on September 15 that non-essential laboratories will not be air-conditioned and the load will be reduced to half of the previous level. Now the two-story office building shares a hot water pot." said a person in charge of Jiangsu Life Science and Technology Innovation Park.
Power outages have also occurred in some cities in the three northeastern provinces, affecting the lives of the people.
“The sudden power outage at 5 pm on September 23 caused many people to fail to make preparations.” A citizen in Hunchun, Jilin told reporters that the power outage was during the rush hour. After the traffic lights were out of power, the traffic order fell into chaos and elevators were out of service. Cooking and washing are affected.
There are roads in some areas of Shenyang City that are congested due to lack of electricity from signal lights.
Multiple factors such as "recovery" and "coal shortage" are superimposed
Industry insiders pointed out that there are two main reasons for power rationing in many places.
The first is the strong economic recovery in coastal provinces and cities after the epidemic, and the rapid growth of electricity demand; the second is that coal prices have soared, coal supply is tight, thermal power companies are losing money, and power generation output is insufficient.
The person in charge of the Guangdong Provincial Energy Bureau said that the general high temperature in Guangdong Province this summer.
Industrial production and high temperature weather have brought strong demand for electricity, and superimposed factors such as insufficient hydropower supply in some areas as expected, resulting in a shortage of electricity supply.
"The economic recovery is strong, driving the rapid growth of electricity demand. In January and March, Guangdong Province's electricity load exceeded 100 million kilowatts, and the electricity consumption growth rate reached more than 30%." "In the peak order period, the demand for electricity in the secondary and tertiary industries continues to be strong.
At present, the maximum load demand of Guangdong Province has reached a record high of 135.13 million kilowatts.
Yang Fuqiang, a distinguished researcher at the Energy Research Institute of Peking University, believes that the substantial increase in electricity consumption reflects the accelerated recovery of domestic economic and social operations after the epidemic.
“Affected by the epidemic in some countries, foreign supply has been blocked, and the global market’s demand for Chinese-made products has increased significantly, which has stimulated power consumption in some coastal cities.”
Monitoring data from the State Grid shows that in the first half of 2021, the monthly electricity consumption in the operation area of the State Grid increased rapidly year-on-year, and the cumulative electricity consumption of the whole society increased by 15.83% over the same period in 2020 and also increased over the same period in 2019. 14.97%.
From the perspective of electricity consumption in the three major industries, the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries accounted for 1.26%, 78.66%, and 20.08% respectively in the first half of the year, an increase of 20.13%, 16.39%, and 25.21% respectively over the same period in 2020, which is similar to the same period in 2019. The specific growth rate exceeded 14 percentage points.
At the same time, the power generation capacity of some provinces has declined.
The prices of natural gas and coal are soaring, the supply of resources is tight, and the on-grid electricity prices remain unchanged. Thermal power companies are losing money on a large scale. The enthusiasm for power generation is not high, and the number of outages for maintenance has increased significantly.
A person in charge of a power generation company in Guangdong told reporters that thermal power plants now suffer a loss of seven to eight cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity.
"Coal shortage" has also appeared in the three northeastern provinces.
On September 26, Liaoning Province held a power security work conference.
The meeting pointed out that since July, due to a sharp drop in power generation capacity, there has been a shortage of power in Liaoning Province.
From September 23 to 25, the power supply gap further increased to a severe level.
In order to prevent the collapse of the entire power grid, the Northeast Power Grid dispatching department directly issued instructions to implement "grid accidents and power rationing" in accordance with relevant plans, and the scope of power consumption was expanded to residents and enterprises that did not implement orderly power use measures.
Thermal power occupies an important position in the energy structure, accounting for about 70% in terms of power generation.
Therefore, the "lack" or "not lacking" of electricity has a lot to do with the supply of coal.
Recently, the prices of thermal coal, coking coal, and coke, the "three brothers" of coal, hit a record high.
According to the monitoring data of the business agency, the average market price of high calorific value thermal coal above 5,500 kcal on September 26 was about 1,535 yuan/ton.
In addition, in the first half of this year, the energy consumption intensity of some regions rose instead of falling, reflecting the rapid expansion of energy-intensive industries in related regions and the mismatch between economic growth and energy consumption growth, which also affected the orderly power consumption measures in individual regions.
Take multiple measures to ensure supply
The National Development and Reform Commission recently issued a notice to various localities and relevant enterprises, requesting to promote direct insurance and full coverage of medium and long-term coal contracts for power generation and heating companies, to ensure the need for coal for power generation and heating, and to maintain the bottom line of coal for people's livelihood.
On the 25th, a signing ceremony for the full coverage and concentration of coal for power generation and heating in Northeast China was held in Beijing. The signed mid- and long-term coal contract involves major domestic coal production companies, guaranteed coal mines, and key power generation and heating companies in Northeast China. The proportion of medium and long-term contracts of thermal enterprises in the amount of coal used this winter will be increased to 100%, so as to ensure the use of coal for people's livelihood in the heating season in the northeast and the people's demand for warmth through the winter.
In accordance with the deployment of the increase in production and supply during the heating season, the relevant business departments of the National Energy Administration have recently gone to Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, East Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Hunan and other places to supervise the work of ensuring the supply of coal and natural gas. Guide localities and enterprises to implement various measures to ensure energy supply, strive to increase energy supply, and go all out to ensure the energy demand for people's livelihood in key areas this winter and next spring.
From September 23 to 25, the deputy director of the National Energy Administration, JD.com, led a team to Ningxia and Shaanxi to in-depth production and construction of the front line, conduct on-site investigation and supervision of the increase in coal and natural gas production and supply, and require local governments and enterprises to consolidate their responsibility to ensure supply. Exploit the potential for increasing production, give prominence to ensuring the use of coal for power generation and heating, and promote the stable operation of the economy and society.
The relevant person in charge of the State Grid told the reporter that comprehensive measures and multiple measures will be taken to fight the battle of power supply; strengthen the unified dispatch of the entire network, rationally arrange the operation mode, serve the power generation enterprises, and achieve the merger; coordinate the deployment of resources, Give full play to the advantages of the large power grid platform, tap the potential of cross-regional and cross-provincial channels for power transmission; strengthen the monitoring of power consumption, and ensure the power consumption of residents; strictly implement the demand response and orderly power use plans formulated by the government, and timely communicate and coordinate work , Maintain the order and stability of power supply and use; strengthen the emergency duty of grid operation to ensure safe and reliable power use.
Guangdong Province is taking full measures to actively respond to the shortage of power supply.
The Energy Bureau of Guangdong Province urges power plants to do a good job in reserve of fuel and auxiliary materials for power generation, to ensure stable and reliable operation of units during peak hours, to coordinate the increase in supply of Western Power, and to send power to Guangdong according to its maximum capacity.
Liaoning Province requires that the orderly use of electricity is implemented in place, and the maximum possible avoidance of power cuts.
All local power operation authorities have avoided the need for power rationing to involve safety production, people's livelihood and important users.
Grid companies should extend the time for orderly electricity load gap forecasting and the release time of early warning levels, expand the scope of notification, and make it easier for users to arrange electricity consumption plans in advance.
Jilin Province requires every effort to guarantee basic electricity demand for people's livelihood, and to the greatest possible avoidance of power cuts.
Grid companies must make scientific and precise dispatch, and it is true that power cuts are necessary, and residents must be informed in advance to make preparations and guide enterprises to avoid peak and off-peak electricity consumption.
Power generation companies must do everything possible to increase supply, reduce downtime for maintenance, ensure power generation capacity during peak hours, and coordinate the peak output of wind and new energy.
At present, some areas in Zhejiang have suspended power curtailment measures, and will further refine the policy, and give priority to protecting people's livelihood and industrial chain related enterprises based on the evaluation system of energy efficiency ratio.
According to industry insiders, in order to curb the blind development of high-energy-consuming and high-emission projects, some local governments have organized measures such as energy budget management, orderly use of electricity and peak-shift production for high-energy-consuming enterprises. This is a response to the original neglect of energy conservation and emission reduction Work correction measures, but we must pay attention to methods and methods to avoid "one size fits all" "simplification" and other practices.
In particular, while adopting an orderly use of electricity, it is necessary to further strengthen refined management to ensure that people's livelihood use is not affected.