A safety official with a power company in Wuhu, Anhui has been sacked for harrassing a journalist who was investigating allegations by several workers that the company had been illegally deducting their wages. more ›

What can we say? We're only too glad they didn't decide to do this to home users instead: "For the first time this summer, Shanghai's power company cut supply to 1,435 industrial users in suburban Qingpu and Songjiang districts yesterday due to a serious shortfall in the areas, the Oriental Morning Post reported today... As the city tries to juggle a tight power supply with spikes in demand, industrial users will be required to close when a potential power shortage occurs, as households will get priority, according to the local power company. The recent scorching weather has imposed high pressure on the local power grid, as sweltering residents crank up their air conditioning." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

The Shanghai Municipal Electric Power Company is urging Shanghai's shopping malls to close down when temperatures exceed 37 degrees Celsius this summer in an attempt to save power for use by residents. Power shortages in Shanghai could exceed 1 gigawatt, and this is the latest plan to keep outages under control. The power rationing plan was approved for 3,000 non-industrial users, although it remains "advisory and not compulsory." Unsurprisingly, some malls have already protested the closures and say they will not comply. Residents of the city are encouraged to set air conditioners no lower than 26 degrees Celsius (or in other words, yucky but livable) and large office buildings will be asked to shut off the AC for one hour on days where temperatures surpass 35 degrees. So far this plan sounds like a list of reasonable but toothless suggestions that will probably result in little or no actual compliance. more ›

While countries around the world are scrambling for a major rethink of their nuclear power strategy, and in some cases shutting down their existing nuclear plants, China is bulldozing its way ahead with new nuke plants, the first of which is coming to Shandong, China this April! more ›

The first few photos above were taken during ultra-high voltage (UHV) transmission experiments carried out at minus 20 degrees Celsius by the State Grid Electric Power Research Institute last Sunday. What is UHV power and why is China doing so much cool-looking science with it? Glad you asked. more ›

Maybe the wind chill factor was down, but we didn't actually notice that yesterday was apparently the coldest day Shanghai's experienced this winter. The power plants did though, as electricity consumption hit its all time peak of 20 million kilowatts. About 7,000 plants have been alerted to the potential of a power shortage today, with usage expected to reach 20.5 million KW (generally, power demand is highest the second day of a weather change, apparently). We're not sure if this was related, but our apartment lost power this morning. It sucked. The rest of you out there, please, for the grid's sake, put on an extra sweater rather than turning the heat up another degree... or something. more ›

From CCTV:

Easing inflation over the last few months may be good news for China's power regulator. It's saying continued falls in the growth rate of the Consumer Price Index leaves ample room for hikes in the retail prices of electricity. more ›

It's been a scorcher of a week and those little AC units are working on overtime. So much so, that it threatens to plunge us all into darkness. Okay, maybe the situation hasn't gotten that melodramatic, but according to Xinhua News we used a whopping 22.43 million kilowatts yesterday afternoon, or roughly one kilowatt per person (shame on you if you used two). more ›

Parts of Shanghai are experiencing blackouts today because sizzling temperatures have led to an exploding electricity demand and the city's power grid is, quite simply, unable to cope with everyone reaching for the a/c. A local power official tells Shanghai Daily that the city's power grid is fully loaded, all backup power generation systems are in use and blackouts may have to be introduced to help the city cope. This summer, the State Grid Corporation of China is already predicting a shortfall of up to 10 million kilowatts with an extended season of hot weather and rising coal costs. Blackout party, anyone? more ›

Share with us how you see Shanghai, or China! Post your photos on Flickr, tag them with "shanghaiist", and we'll select one favorite image per day. Or you can simply email your photos to photos at shanghaiist.com. more ›

According to a blog essay we found, a recent poll by Harris Interactive showed that of 6,000 people from France, Germany, Italy, the UK, and the US, the overwhelming majority considered China the second most powerful nation in the world after the USA. We did some searching on the internet, and couldn't find mention of that report. We tried on Harris Interactive's site as well, but no dice. Perhaps we haven't looked hard enough? Or... more ›