China's electricity shortage will relieve to some extent this year, said a Chinese electric power official Friday in Beijing.

The whole shortage situation, however, will remain unchanged, which it requires a fairly long period of reconstruction, said Shao Bingren, vice chairman of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC).

Fifty million kilowatts of power generators were put into production last year, and this year will more generators will be around, Shao acknowledged. Construction needs time, and so electricity supply situation is not very optimistic, he said.

Since January this year, he added, the seriousness of electric power shortage has been reduced though the scope of areas with insufficient electricity has somewhat narrowed.

Overall, Large-area electricity shortage was replaced by seasonable and periodic shortages, he said.

In the wake of high-pace growth of national economy, Shao said, the demand for electric power in China has kept growing in the past two years, and this causes electric power shortage over large areas.

China not to raise electricity price for civil, agriculture use

China will not raise the electricity price for its residents home use as well as use in agriculture this year, though power crunch is likely to come again, said the official.

China launched a mechanism last year to link the electricity price changes with the coal price fluctuations, but the mechanism applied only to the price of electric power for industrial use, said Shao.

China's electricity watchdog to exercise duties in line with law

The State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) will exercise its electric power control duties in accordance with the Regulations on Electricity Supervision and Control, said Shao.

The Regulations on Electricity Supervision and Control are to take effect as of May 1st, the official said.

SERC was founded in 2002 amid sweeping market-driven reforms in China's power sector, acknowledged Shao. The promulgation and enforcement of Regulations on Electricity Regulation indicated that SERC has emerged from its tentative set-up stage to a position to exercise full supervision and control duties according to law.