Electricity rate hike hearings to be held
By Guo Nei (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-06-18 23:38

One thing is for certain: Residents in parts of China are going to pay higher electricity rates.

But before that, pricing authorities will hold hearings on the rate hikes.

The National Development and Reform Commission on Friday approved increases in seven municipalities and provinces for daily electricity use, a China Central Television (CCTV) report said.

The seven include Beijing, Tianjin and Chongqing municipalities and Zhejiang, Fujian, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.

Hearings on the price hikes will be held to air public opinions, according to the report.

"If the price does go up, I guess I will be more cautious in using electrical appliances," said Jing Peng, a Beijinger.

"Anyway, all media say we are experiencing serious power shortages."

On Wednesday, the commission announced electricity price hikes in most parts of China. The increase is an average of 2.2 fen (0.27 US cent) per kilowatt-hour (kwh).

But the price increase did not cover agricultural or daily life uses and was only designed for the southern part of China, East China, Central China and North China.

The commission is considering hikes in Northeast China and Northwest China, too.

In addition to planning price hikes, other measures are being taken to ease the thirst for power.

For example, Tianjin officials prolonged the rainfall on Wednesday by using artificial rain techniques, China News Agency reported.

The move helped drop local temperatures to 20 C and people turned off their air conditioners.

It is estimated successful artificial rainfall can make the temperature drop by five to 10 degrees.

Tianjin has decided to continue the effort to cool the city.

In addition, the National Development and Reform Commission has called on administrative bodies to take measure to save power, including using natural light during work hours and turning up air conditioner thermostats.

Experts say a one-degree drop in temperatures can decrease air condition energy consumption by 8 per cent.

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