China Electricity Regulatory Commission: Large-scale power curtailment may occur this summer, electricity shortage stems from idle capacity

China Electricity Regulatory Commission: This summer may be due to large-scale power shortages. Yu Yanshanri, deputy director of the General Office of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, said that if the water supply situation is not good, the continuous loss of thermal power companies will not be changed, and the summer peak will be large. It is very likely that the area will be cut off and curtailed.　　Recently, some areas in the country have encountered power cuts, and central China is more serious. In addition, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Henan, Shanxi, Hunan, and Qinghai all have certain coal shortages and shutdowns.　　 Previous analysis believed that the installed capacity of thermal power was insufficient to cope with the substantial increase in power demand caused by the rise of the high-load energy industry in the first quarter, which was the main reason for the early arrival of power shortage.　　Yu Yanshan denied this claim. He said that the current tight power supply is not caused by the insufficient production capacity of power companies. my country's thermal power generation capacity is still at a high level. The problem is that the production enthusiasm of thermal power companies has been affected, and the utilization hours of power generation are at a low level.　　 The high maintenance rate in some areas during the electricity shortage period confirms this statement. When interviewing the State Grid Hunan Electric Power Company in Hunan Province, a reporter from 'Economic Information Daily' learned that the province’s integrated thermal power installed capacity is 10,000 kilowatts, but only 10,000 kilowatts are available for output, and more than half of the thermal power installations are down, of which a considerable amount Some are in overhaul status.　　 In addition, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission provided information on overhauls in Henan, a large power generation province. The installed capacity of thermal power in Henan exceeds 10,000 kilowatts, but more than 10,000 kilowatts of installed capacity are currently under maintenance. A person from a power company in Hunan explained to the 'Economic Information Daily' reporter that there are many reasons for the maintenance, '*The country has imposed certain restrictions on coal prices, and many major coal provinces have imposed many restrictions on coal output. Coal import is not smooth; secondly, due to the huge losses of thermal power companies, many companies have asset-liability ratios higher than %, and banks are reluctant to lend to power companies and have almost no working capital to purchase thermal coal. This has caused the current situation of coal shortage and shutdown.'　　North China Professor Zhang Xiaoli, assistant to the president of the University of Electric Power, said that it is abnormal that a high overhaul rate occurs in a region during the power shortage stage. 'In foreign power markets, some power plants will join forces to reduce power supply in the name of overhaul, resulting in a situation where market demand exceeds supply. , And then raise the price of electricity sales. Although the amount of power generation has been reduced, it has increased profits.” A ** power industry insider who did not want to be named said that in general, thermal power companies should arrange as few maintenance as possible when power is tight. At the current node of the electricity shortage, such a large proportion of thermal power units are undergoing maintenance, and there is a suspicion that idle production capacity is waiting for the country to raise prices again.　　 Many industry experts said in an interview that the reality of large-scale losses for thermal power companies in the past two years shows that failure to rationalize the coal price mechanism will only make thermal power companies less and less motivated to generate electricity.　　 Power generation groups, especially thermal power companies, have been deeply mired in their operations in recent years. The 'Annual Electricity Regulatory Report' revealed that since the beginning of the year, the five major domestic power generation groups (Hua Neng, Datang, Huadian, Guodian, and China Power Investment) thermal power have accumulated losses of more than 100 million yuan each year, with a total loss of more than 100 million yuan.　　 State Electricity Regulatory Commission spokesperson Tan Rongyao said that the rise in coal prices in recent years and the increase in financial costs have directly affected the survival and development of downstream power generation companies.　　 'The more we distribute now, the more we lose,' said a person in the fuel department of the five major power generation groups.　　 The industry generally believes that due to the lack of a good geographical price mechanism, the price of thermal coal continues to rise and the on-grid price rises slowly, resulting in a significant shortage of thermal power output in some provinces. In the long run, the current electricity price formation mechanism should be reformed and improved.　　Zhang Xianzi said that in the current situation of high price pressures, simply raising electricity prices or curbing coal prices are both a temporary solution and not a permanent cure. 'It is necessary to strengthen demand-side management, and at the same time strengthen inter-regional and inter-provincial power dispatch, and play the role of regional power market adjustment.