Coal Shortages Force Blackouts across China
Strategic Research Institute
Published on :
04 Oct, 2021, 6:30 am
Much of northeast China has been intermittently without power as the country comes to grips with a litany of issues, ranging from depleted coal inventories to far-reaching consequences of its national energy policy. Although the problem is most acute in the frigid northeast, blackouts have been occurring in at least 17 provinces nationwide, including Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shandong, Anhui, and Jiangsu. Jilin utility company issued a notice that electricity cuts are expected to occur frequently until March 2022 and would likely be irregular, unplanned and unannounced. Average daily temperature lows in Jilin’s capital, Changchun, are 10.8 degree Celsius in September dropping to -19 degree Celsius
China has built wind and hydropower facilities but the output of these renewables has been insufficient to meet recent demand. Coal is still the mainstay of power generation, but depleted supplies have raised prices to a 10-year high. The first target for energy rationing is industry, which accounts for 68 percent of China’s consumption, dwarfing the 15 percent made up by residential consumption. But even with the shuttering of industry, there is not enough left for residential dwellings.
Nine-tenths of China’s coal is sourced domestically from Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Inner Mongolia. Remaining deposits are buried deep underground, inaccessible through surface mining. But in June the increasing dangers of tunnel mining led regulators to close mines in Shanxi following deadly accidents, lowering output. Imports make up the remaining 10 percent of the nation’s coal supply, but these sources have also been under pressure. Before Australia called in April 2020 for an independent inquiry into the origins of COVID-19, it supplied 68 percent of China’s coal imports. That plunged to zero as China imposed an unofficial embargo on Australian coal as part of their diplomatic standoff, refusing customs clearance.