Climate Change-Induced Droughts Are Causing Electricity Shortages In China

Power restrictions are being imposed in China¡¯s metro city Shanghai, along with other cities across the southwest region as the nation fights ongoing power shortages caused due to severe droughts in the summer.

via Medium: Fernando Mata Lic¨®n/ AFP

Reported first by The Guardian, the city saw the decorative lights of the city for two days, for the first time ever, due to the power shortage. In Sichuan, authorities issued a top-level energy emergency -- for the very first time in the province's history -- to address the power shortages. The alert essentially is indicative of the fact that residents will be offered priority for power supplies.

To the unaware, Sichuan is popular for its abundance of hydro energy that offers nearly 80 percent of its power and is also a crucial link in China¡¯s West-to-East Electricity Transfer Project.

However, this year, the region has been hit by record-breaking high temperatures -- highest in the past 6 decades -- while rivers in the region have dropped to its lowest ever, and all this means the hydropower plants are making half the electricity that they did this time last year.

The province has issued rolling blackouts across factories, whereas international companies have halted production while coal-fired plants try to bridge the energy gap. Yet, the demands from residential communities aren¡¯t being met.

EPA

Private business owners are also experiencing this wrath with the rationing of power supplies. The report highlights that this is also affecting the nation, with cross-regional activities and supply chains being hit. This has also caused the raising in prices of commodities like silicon metal, and automobile parts from companies like Tesla and Shanghai Automotive Industry are also expected to experience a shortage,.

Xu Xiaofeng, former deputy director of the China Meteorological Administration, said in an interview with National Business Daily, ¡°Around the globe, extreme weather with high and even super-high temperatures will likely occur frequently in the coming decade or for a longer period of time in the future. Judging by the situation this year, I don¡¯t think people have got the full picture of how big an impact such weather can have on our production activities and our lives.

Xiaofeng added, ¡°Only by strengthening coordination among various industries and deepening our knowledge about climate change can we come up with effective coping measures.¡±

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