Guizhou started making a cut in power transmission to Guangdong in November to ensure normal power supply within its own province. The plan is to reduce daily transmission to Guangdong by 30 million kwh. This move is necessitated by a strong demand for electricity as a result of rapid economic growth in Guizhou in the fourth quarter of this year as well as winter load increase.
According to the Guizhou Power Grid Corporation under the China Southern Power Grid Corporation, daily load in Guizhou will increase to 180 million kwh in the near term. If outward power transmission proceeded as planned, daily outward transmission would amount to about 110 million kwh. This load would require a daily generation capacity of 315 million kwh. However, coal supply for the Guizhou power grid has been tight since the second half of this year, with daily coal supply only reaching 110,000 tonnes. The situation has improved somewhat following the introduction of emergency measures by the Guizhou provincial government. Daily coal supply has increased to 130,000 tonnes but still falls short of the normal daily demand for 155,000 tonnes.
In order to ensure electricity supply in the province, Guizhou has not only stopped supplying electricity to Chongqing, Hunan and other neighbouring provinces and cities but has appropriately slashed its planned power transmission to Guangdong. The Guizhou Power Grid Corporation is currently liaising with the Southern Power Grid Corporation for relevant arrangements. Meanwhile, with the approval of the National Reform and Development Commission, Guizhou is charging Rmb0.015 more for every kwh of electricity transmitted outward.
Since the implementation of the "west-east electricity transmission" project, Guizhou has increased the installed capacity of its power generating plants to 18.875 million kw from 5 million kw in 2000. However, due to soaring coal price and the arrival of the loan repayment peak, some thermal power plants in Guizhou started to sustain heavy losses in recent years, with a few of them sustaining losses amounting to Rmb100 million this year. Meanwhile, the supply of coal as a fuel for power generation is also becoming strained after coal price deregulation on 1 July 2007. So far, suspended operation and reduced output of coal-fired power plants in the province due to coal shortage have led to a combined installed capacity loss of over 2 million kw.
Guizhou is an important province on the southern route of the "west-east electricity transmission" project. At the current outward transmission volume of 30 billion kwh a year, an upward price adjustment of Rmb0.015 per kwh will increase Guizhou's annual revenue by Rmb450 million. This will, to some extent, ease Guizhou's electricity and coal shortage problem and promote the healthy development of the province's energy industry.
