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Nature and EnvironmentChina

China: Sichuan power crisis eases as temperatures fall

August 28, 2022

Following several weeks of power cuts that hit large industrial producers, power has started to return to normal. A record-breaking heat wave and drought are to blame for the crisis.

https://p.dw.com/p/4G9iD
An angler is seen at the dried-up riverbed of the Jialing river, a tributary of the Yangtze River in China's southwestern city of Chongqing
The heat wave and power cuts hit millions of people in China's Sichuan province amid a devastating droughtImage: Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images

Electricity shortages in China's south-western Sichuan region have begun to ease, ending a two-week long energy crisis, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Sunday.

Temperatures in the region have dropped from their highs of over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) — during the most severe heat wave in six decades — leading to reduced demand for air conditioning, which had been sucking up large amounts of electricity.

But the severe drought in the Yangtze river basin has yet to let up, leaving experts warning that the energy crisis may not be over.

Industrial hub brought to a standstill

Sichuan is in normal times a hub for hydroelectric power, delivering a surplus to the rest of the country's network and accounting for a total of 30% of China's hydroelectric output.

However, amid the recent crisis, it was having to import electricity from other regions.

Major factories like Toyota, Volkswagen and Foxconn — which supplies parts for Apple — had been forced to reduce or stop production.

Small-scale industrial and commercial users have seen their power restored while electricity will be gradually returned to larger industrial users. The most energy-intensive industries will still have to wait, CCTV quoted the State Grid Corp as saying.

Impacts of climate change

The drought left the Yangtze river at historically low levels. For a region like Sichuan, which is dependent on the river for 80% of its electricity via hydroelectric plants, the drought has been devastating.

The river runs from the inland region to Shanghai, its basin home to some 370 million people.

The environmental crisis has hit the world's second-biggest economy hard, compounding other ongoing global problems such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The drought will likely also have a big impact on the autumn harvest in China's "bread basket," which will further hit the already strained global market for agricultural commodities.

ab/fb (dpa, Reuters)