China imposed 757,000 power brownouts from January to June, losing some 19.45 billion kwh in electricity, according to the State Power Grid Company (SPGC).

Zhao Xizheng, general manager of the SPGC, said China may face the most severe power shortage since the 1980s this summer, with a demand of 30 million kilowatts more than supply.

Statistics show that the country's electricity demand has increased about 16 percent in the first six months of this year over the same period last year.

The second industry has maintained the highest growth in power consumption, with an increase rate of 17.96 percent in the first half year, compared to the first and tertiary industries that grew 2.61 percent and 14.38 percent respectively.

Due to inadequate electricity supply, China's 24 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have experienced brownouts so far this year.

From July 15 to August 15, over 6,000 enterprises in Beijing are taking vacation by turns, in a bid to reduce power consumption during peak hours in the scorching summer.

The capital has also introduced other measures such as shifting weekends to working days, so as to balance the power consumption at the weekend, which consumes 1 million kilowatts fewer than a normal working day.

Source: Xinhua