Industrial Hub Facing Power Crunch That May Ripple Across China
- Steel, cement plants in Sichuan asked to curb production
- Severe drought in 2022 led to shortages of hydropower
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Extreme heat and rising energy demand risk overwhelming China’s attempts to prevent a repeat of last year’s curbs on power supply in the major industrial province of Sichuan.
China’s sixth-biggest provincial economy, with a higher GDP than Poland, is heavily reliant on hydropower and is being forced to ration electricity as water levels fall due to hot and dry weather. It’s also had to cut electricity exports to the populous east coast, potentially contributing to shortages there.