The unexpected early arrival of heatwaves has posed a stern challenge to China's economy.
The unexpected early arrival of heatwaves throughout China this year has brought about nationwide power and water shortage, posing a stern challenge to China's economy.
In the first 10 days of July, the Chinese Central Meteorological Station forecast shows that high temperature, at least 35 degrees Celsius, will prevail in most parts of China.
Temperature in some regions is likely to top 40 degrees Celsius.
The hottest areas will include north China, where Beijing, China's Capital, and several important economic centers are located, the major part of south China, regions along the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers and part of southwest China.
China's economic hub, Shanghai, experienced its hottest days in the past 70 years when the temperature hit 39 degrees Celsius on Sunday. The municipality consecutively issued three "black warning signals", the top disaster-warning level.
Residents in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, have been suffering temperatures of above 35 degrees Celsius for ten days in succession since late June, which has never happened since the city began keeping meteorological records in 1907.
The unusually unremitting high temperatures posed a direct challenge to China's power supply system.
The maximum customers' load in Shanghai reached 15.81 million kilowatts on July 1, 810,000 kw more than the record of last year.
Power consumption in Shanghai renewed its record three times in a week. The local power grid said power supply had already reached the top capacity.
In nearby Anhui Province, water shortage and continuous overload operation have severely affected power supply, resulting in a decrease of 1.13 million kw in electricity generation.
The province was forced to launch the "orange level warning" for power supply and set a limit on consumption of big power consumers. Sources with the State Electricity Dispatching Center said this summer's power shortage will be much more serious than last year.
The customer's load in eastern and northern parts of China has surpassed the peak amount of 2004, with the biggest gap reaching 14 million and 3 million kw, respectively.
Many experts attribute the power shortage to the skyrocketing economy, especially high-power-consuming industries.
The unbalanced power source structure is also blamed for the crisis. Experts think thermal power makes up a larger proportion than it should in the structure. Consequently, the shortage of coal will immediately lead to a terrible power generation breakdown.
The power limitation policies apparently affect the economic results of many industries.
In Anhui, the Jianghuai Automobile Company has to ask workers to work at night due to frequent power cut-off, which lasts for as long as 12 hours a day.
A company official said the limitation of power supply had greatly hit its production and delivery plans, causing great losses.
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Producer:
Han Wei 
The unexpected early arrival of heatwaves throughout China this year has brought about nationwide power and water shortage, posing a stern challenge to China's economy.
