(Bloomberg) -- Temperatures over 40C (104F) in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan are putting pressure on the electricity grid and damaging crops at an important stage of their growth.
Maximum power demand in the province the size of Germany hit a record 68 gigawatts last week, 13% higher than the previous year’s peak. Officials in some cities have ordered energy conservation measures, such as reducing air conditioning use, disabling escalators and turning off landscape lighting.
The grid is so far holding up and no widespread power shortages have been reported. That’s a big improvement on two years ago, which saw power curtailments to factories amid a heat wave and drought that drained the reservoirs that provide most of the region’s electricity. Heavy rains earlier this year have allowed hydropower generation in the country to surge over the summer.
The region’s heat wave is also baking crops from rice to corn, threatening output in a major production hub that accounted for nearly 36 million tons of grain last year, more than 5% of the national total.
Temperatures as high as 42C are expected to hit parts of the Sichuan basin and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the next 10 days, at a time when the crops are particularly vulnerable to heat damage, according to a report from the National Meteorological Centre.
Weather woes are battering crops elsewhere in China, with heavy rains bringing risks of flooding to northern production hubs including Shandong and Hebei provinces, while scorching temperatures are threatening cotton in the top growing region of Xinjiang in the northwest.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
