China is expected to maintain an overall balance between the electricity supply and demand in 2011, but certain regions will still experience occasional power shortages, according to information from the 2011 Economic Situation and Power Development Analysis and Forecast Conference held by the China Electricity Council.
Liu Zhenya, president of the State Grid Corporation of China and chairman of the China Electricity Council, said that China s electricity consumption in the first two months of this year reached 702.5 billion kilowatt-hours, up over 12 percent from last year. It is estimated that the total power consumption will reach 4.6 trillion kilowatt-hours this year, up around 10 percent from a year earlier.
Although an overall balance between the electricity supply and demand is achievable in 2011, certain regions will still face occasional power shortages. The central and southern regions will maintain a balance between power supply and demand. The supply of power in the northwestern and northeastern regions will likely surpass the demand, while the demand of power in the northern and eastern regions is expected to slightly surpass the supply.
As for the power supply, the council predicted that the use of new energy in power generation, the construction of cross-region power grids, and the upgrade of rural power grids will further stimulate investments in the electricity sector. It is estimated that the total investments in China s electricity sector will reach 750 billion yuan in 2011, an increase of about 6 percent from last year s 705.1 billion yuan.
Around 400 billion yuan will go to power plant construction, and 350 billion yuan will go to power grid construction. According to the council, China s electricity infrastructure will also witness great development in 2011. A number of small coal-fired power plants will be shut down, and the country s total installed power generation capacity will rise by around 90 million kilowatts this year to over 1 billion kilowatts.
