Power use rises in Hubei as lockdowns are lifted

Power consumption has increased sharply in China's Hubei province following the lifting of a lengthy lockdown. The increased power requirements are likely to support coal demand.

Power load on the grid in Hubei — whose capital city, Wuhan, was the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic — reached 20.03GW yesterday, according to the provincial subsidiary of China State Power, which operates the grid in Hubei. Yesterday's power load was up by 16pc from 11 March, it said, without disclosing when the low point had been reached in recent months.

The Hubei provincial government has lifted lockdowns on cities in the province after two months and started removing restrictions on the movement of people. The lockdown in Wuhan will only be lifted on 8 April. Wuhan was sealed on 23 January following the outbreak of the coronavirus, following which almost all other cities in Hubei were locked down.

The Hubei power grid operator has arranged for the restart of 2.63GW of idled thermal power capacity to cope with the expected recovery in industrial power demand following the lifting of restrictions on movement. Most of the power capacity is based on coal. The grid operator has also increased the use of hydropower generated by the Three Gorges Dam, on the Yangtze river in Hubei, bringing overall power supply to 22.5GW.

The province plans to restore projects that were disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak, as well as help to transport people who had been stranded back to their places of work outside the province. The resumption of projects is likely to further raise power consumption and support coal demand, although Hubei is also a major hydropower province and so may increase hydropower output on the back of rising rainfall.

Combined coal stocks at plants in Hubei reached 4.85mn t on 24 March, down by 23,000t on the day, according to the Hubei government. The province did not provide details on how this compared with coal stocks in previous weeks.

Several Chinese provinces and municipalities, including Zhejiang and Shanghai, lowered their coronavirus emergency alert levels earlier this week. This has supported power demand nationwide, leaving combined coal burn at the six coastal utilities at 617,000 t/d on 24 March, the highest point since 18 January, according to data compiled by coal industry association the CCTD. The coal burn dipped to 587,000 t/d yesterday.

source: Argus Media