On June 14, 2013, China’s largest power distributor, the State Grid Corporation of China, said that the electricity demand is likely to increase 8.4 percent year-on-year during the summer of this year. The increase will mark a 5.3 percentage points higher than what it was in the summer of 2012.
The company supplies power to almost 80 percent of the territory in China. The State Grid Corporation added that about seven provincial-level grids will notice the growth in power demand by more than 10 percent, while most of them are in the less-developed western areas of the country. Efforts have also been made by the company to launch safety inspections on power lines.
The precautions taken will help to minimize the impact of the thunder and heavy rain on power transmission. On June 14, 2013, the National Energy Administration said that the power consumption in China has increased to 4.9 percent during the first five months of 2013, as opposed to the same period last year.
Reports of soft growth followed a number of other key economic data, that pointed out to the toned-down strength in the second largest economy of the world. The industrial production in China increased to 9.2 percent year-on-year in May of this year. However, the producer price index which measures inflation at the wholesale level has fallen for the 15th straight month, also in May of this year.