What’s new: The amount of electricity transferred from three southwest regions to energy-hungry Guangdong and Hainan provinces dropped 32% year-on-year in the first four months of the year, according to the Guangzhou Power Exchange Center.
The energy trading platform said that Yunnan and Guizhou provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region transferred just 40.23 billion kilowatt-hours through April.
An official at the center told Caixin that more power than usual was generated by hydroelectric plants in Yunnan last year, in part due to more snow melting on the Tibetan plateau, leading to a higher comparison base.
Also, Guangdong’s demand was reduced this year due to the coronavirus epidemic, the official said.
What’s the background: China’s electricity transmission project has three main channels connecting resource-rich western China to more economically developed northern, eastern and southern parts of the country.
The southern part of the project transports electricity generated in Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi provinces to the southern island province of Hainan and the Pearl River Delta region, which includes much of central Guangdong.
Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use.To read the full Caixin article in Chinese, click here.
Contact reporter Lu Yutong (yutonglu@caixin.com) and editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)
