How China stumbled into a painful energy shortage

asia.nikkei.com...

The perfect storm that created China's worst power crunch grew out of surging energy demand amid the post-pandemic recovery and plunging coal supplies due to the government's emission-reduction campaign.

Since late September, many parts of China have suffered severe electricity supply shortages. Local governments imposed power cuts and rationing on industrial users and even residents. The ripple effects disrupted global supply chains as textile, steel and other factories shut down and production plunged.

"I have never seen this in my 20-year career," said a power plant staffer in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, one of the regions experiencing the worst power outages over the past few weeks. "Coal prices have nearly doubled this year." The staffer's plant was losing money on every kilowatt-hour of electricity produced, and it had enough coal to last only two days, the person told Caixin on Sept. 26 as parts of the province were hit by abrupt power cuts.

first--I'm amazed that China reduced its coal production. I wonder how much was green diplomacy and how much was their cities being uninhabitable from pollution.

A shortfall of coal supply, an export boom and local government efforts to curtail industrial energy consumption and meet carbon-reduction goals have contributed to the recent wave of electricity cuts, which could further drive up costs of industrial production and disrupt the global supply chain, analysts said.

more people, more technology; more energy needs.
and winter is coming.
so far the USA has mostly been able to supply its electricity demand but if it starts to be like China with shortages...green energy is going to become very unpopular.

China is also suffering from flooding, which hurts their power grid and their agriculture.

if I ever get my own country, my first two priorities are going to be power grid and food supply.

a reply to: ElGoobero

24 hour constant use of electricity has made us all weak.
Think about how many of you would cry like babies if you didn't have access to it every day all day.

I for one would (and do) give up access to electricity 24 hours a day if it meant a cleaner less polluted world.

Pollution in our air, water , and food is whats causing so many mental illnesses and sickness in this world.

Do you guys think it's bad for kids to be online 24 -7 ?
You and I were born into a world of 24-7 electricity. And we made the same mistake the kids are by using it everyday all day.

I'm not only talking about electricity but all the waste that we produce.
I choose a cleaner world over comfort every time.

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
You and I were born into a world of 24-7 electricity. And we made the same mistake the kids are by using it everyday all day.

It sure would be fun to go back to the good old days of ice boxes, whale oil and steam powered machinery.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

No it wouldn't. And that's not what I'm saying.

I love modern tech. We should keep using it and advancing.
But do the majority of us need to use electricity every day all day?

Why do you feel that you need this?

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
But do the majority of us need to use electricity every day all day?

Yeah, because I like my fridge cold, my lights on and the machinery that produces my goods to run more efficiently than 100 years ago.

a reply to: scraedtosleep

Can we factor in industries that produce, let's take for example chips bags, that are 2 to 3 times larger than needed. That's pollution right there from over producing, plus the bag that will also pollute.

Even chips companies that speak "green" do it.

But let's say it's the people like me who abuse electricity, by using about 6 hours of it at home per day...
Aside from my fridge and cooler, I'm not using electricity while at work and kids at school, nor when we sleep.

So?

I should cut my use of electricity so aberrations like chips bags can still be produced to our... "delight"?

China tried to punish Australia. It's backfiring.

With China said to be angry at Australia for calling for an international investigation into the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, it implemented a de facto ban on imports of Australian coal, leaving scores of ships stranded and tens of thousands of tons of coal unsold.

mining-tech news
reuters

double post

a reply to: scraedtosleep

Good for you , I want my electricity . Mine comes from Natural gas powered plants so its clean . Solar and wind are to expensive and unreliable .

a reply to: deltaalphanovember
Self inflicted wound

No wonder tiwan is building up defence just hold out and they will fall on there own sword

I need my electricity to stay alive, as I need a cpap every night just to sleep with sleep apnea.

I have solar panels on the roof and batteries for storage to run my 12volt LED lighting system.

'The only things in my motor home i use grid power for is cooling, tv and my computers.

I only pay about $50 to 60 dollars a month for power, and less in the winter, as I use propane for heating.

a reply to: ANNED

You're not doing your part, you need to cut your energy consumption in half and also try breathing less.

a reply to: markovian

Well since Taiwan makes fifty percent of the small supply of chips at present, and China moves on Taiwan, we might experience a period of hurt.

www.cnn.com...

"China tells mines to produce 'as much coal as possible'"

The Chinese government has ordered the country's coal mines to "produce as much coal as possible" as it tries to increase production as winter approaches, and ease an ongoing energy crunch.

The announcement from China's National Development and Reform Commission comes after weeks of power shortages across many provinces, forcing the government to ration electricity during peak hours and some factories to suspend production. The problem has weighed on economic growth as industrial output drops.

Beijing pushed coal mines to curtail production earlier this year as the country pursued ambitious targets to cut carbon emissions. But demand has surged for projects that require fossil fuels, and there just hasn't been enough power to go around.
To combat the problem, China began ordering coal mines to ramp up production, with authorities in Inner Mongolia, the country's second largest coal-producing province, ordering dozens of mines to boost output earlier this month.

the realists in Beijing see that 'green energy' is woefully insufficient for the world today.

but the progs in the USA expect us to sacrifice and pay more and more $ for our power.

a reply to: coamanach

The first people to cut back should be the industries. We don't need chips at all. We don't need t.v. dinners. We don't need Figurines. We don't need dried banana snacks.
We don't need factories making 100's of things. And we damn sure don't need millions of every product made sitting around on shelves eventually being wasted just because we want the convenience of having what we want as soon as we want it.

Think about how much is wasted in this world due to convenience.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

The people of the world today are some damn weak.
Just suggesting that we should limit our power use and they all start crying like someone took babies bottle.

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
a reply to: coamanach

The first people to cut back should be the industries. We don't need chips at all. We don't need t.v. dinners. We don't need Figurines. We don't need dried banana snacks.
We don't need factories making 100's of things. And we damn sure don't need millions of every product made sitting around on shelves eventually being wasted just because we want the convenience of having what we want as soon as we want it.

Think about how much is wasted in this world due to convenience.

"Figurines"?

"t.v. dinners"??

o_O

What year do you believe this to be, exactly?

Did you just float in on a container ship from Guam with your buddy Wilson?

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

You don't understand that those are just some examples of crap that is made but not needed?

You also sound like your not aware that figurines and t.v. dinners are produced by the millions all over the world?

a reply to: ElGoobero

If you live in an apartment, you have to use electricity, if you try to use combustibles to keep warm they destroy the fireplace. They are gonna go off soon.