(Beijing) More than five million people in southwestern China are experiencing intermittent power outages as a severe heatwave is impacting power demand and forcing businesses to stop work, according to officials. local media on Wednesday.
Posted at 10:18 a.m.
China’s Meteorological Administration said the country was experiencing its longest period of high temperatures since 1961, when temperature records began, with 64 consecutive days of heat alerts in different regions since June.
Several major cities recorded the hottest days in their history and the national observatory renewed the red alert for high temperatures on Wednesday, the most serious alert in its four-level system.
The water volume of major rivers in Sichuan fell 20 to 50 percent in the absence of rain, severely affecting hydropower generation, state news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday, citing provincial officials. Energy.
Temperatures in Sichuan province have risen above 40°C in recent days, prompting high demand for electric air-conditioning systems.
At the same time, Sichuan depends 80% on hydraulic dams to produce its electricity, but the rivers in the region have dried up and the reservoirs too, according to the authorities.
The city of Dazhou, which has 5.4 million people in the northeast of the province, was intermittently supplied with electricity on Wednesday, according to a local power company, local media reported.
Interruptions of three hours and even more if necessary are planned, reports the media citing the company Dazhou Electric Power Group.
Nineteen of the 21 cities in the province have been called upon to suspend industrial production until Saturday, according to a notice published on Sunday and relayed by the official media.
Industries in Sichuan, including a joint venture with Japanese automaker Toyota, had to cease operations after the authorities decided to give priority to supplying electricity to residential areas.
Toyota stopped production in Chengdu (capital of the province) on Monday and “respects the directives of the authorities”, a spokeswoman told AFP without specifying the financial consequences for the company.
The world’s largest electric car battery maker, Contemporary Amperex Technology, has also ceased production in Yibin, according to Chinese media.
Sichuan is a key region in China for the manufacture of lithium, a metal present in electric batteries.
More than a third of China’s weather stations recorded extreme temperatures this summer, with 262 of them meeting or exceeding previous records, the administration said.
According to scientists, extreme weather conditions have become more frequent due to climate change, which is impacting economies and societies around the world.