Cold putting pressure on power supply

The city's power supplier was scrambling yesterday to avert shortages, as five sets of generators broke down amid the cold weather.

Shanghai Electric Power Co rushed to fix three of the five malfunctioned generators overnight on Tuesday to meet a spike in consumption brought by the sudden chilly weather.

Shanghai Electric secured 4 million kilowatts from the National Grid and neighboring regions, bringing the city's current power supply capacity to 17.3 million kilowatts.

The supply of electricity for both production and households was good, the company said yesterday.

However, a shortage is still possible if the load were to peak at more than 18 million kilowatts.

If that should happen, the company said it would shed the load of some factories to ensure electricity to households.

"If the supply from other provinces is stable, the city won't have a problem on the power supply," said Zhu Jixin, official of the company.

The company also appealed to the public to save electricity.

The company said on TV yesterday that a minor power failure in some city areas was from a regular facility check, and not a cause for worry.

Meanwhile, since the mercury dropped to a low of 1.1 degrees Celsius yesterday morning, gas supplies in the city also faced challenges.

But the situation is stable, officials said, despite gas cuts in other part of the country.

Shanghai Gas Co said daily consumption of gas this week increased 41.5 percent over last week. Natural gas consumption rose 27 percent.

The company said a new gas production line in Pudong New Area had been in use for two weeks. Natural gas from Yangshan Deep-Water Port started to flow into the city last Wednesday.

So far no potential gas shortage has been reported.

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