With less water and coal available than last year and demand soaring, China has enlarged its electricity transfer from the west to keep power supplies relatively stable in the east.

The China Southern Power Grid reported that between January and June, some 14.2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity was transferred, jumping 56.2 percent, or 5.1 billion kWh, from the same period last year.

The largest beneficiary province, Guangdong, received a total of 11.3 billion kWh, up 73.6 percent year-on-year.

Given the country's severe imbalance in power generating capacity, the government started a massive West-to-East Power Transfer project in 2000. Every year, electricity is sent from big power generators such as Qinghai, Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Shaanxi to big energy consumers in the east like Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin.

For the latter half of the year, the China Southern Power Grid predicted that some 23.5 billion kWh of electricity would be transferred. That is 60 percent more than was transferred in the first six months.

In contrast with the past, industry experts say, reverse transfers also increased this year, with more electricity traveling from east to west.

For example, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region suffered a power shortage on January 22, during the Spring Festival. Guangdong Province, which sometimes has surplus power in winter, diverted more than 500 million kWh of electricity to help Guangxi through the crunch.

As the nationwide power outage menace persists, China is striving to improve its power management capabilities and be more flexible and efficient.

(Xinhua News Agency July 29, 2004)