From skyline going dark to companies shutting operations: China's crippling power crisis

China is staring at a power crisis set off by record-breaking temperatures and severe drought conditions . As a result, the iconic skyline of China’s the Bund waterfront in Shanghai, a tourist hotspot, has been switched off for two nights to conserve energy. As per BBC, the Shanghai Landscaping and City Appearance Administrative Bureau said in a statement on Sunday, that buildings in the Bund, will not be lit on Monday and Tuesday. “We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause,” it added. The development comes in the wake of a nationwide drive to save power amid unprecedented heatwaves in China. Let’s look at China’s power crunch in detail: Why is China going dark? Many manufacturers in China’s Sichuan province have been hit by power cuts. The province, which witnessed the worst drought in more than a half century this year, has initiated the highest emergency response for the first time since it adopted an energy supply contingency plan in January. As power disruptions were extended in the region to some industrial users till 25 August, many key factories including German carmaker Volkswagen and contemporary Amperex Technology have shut down. Sichuan has recorded soaring heat with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104F). Officials in the province said in a statement that heatwave and low rainfall, accompanied by rise in demand for air conditioning, has led to power shortages, BBC reported. “Sichuan is now facing the hottest temperatures and the worst drought of the past 60 years,” Morgan Stanley analyst Simon Lee was quoted as saying by Bloomberg. While Japanese auto giant Toyota, which had also shut its factory earlier, told BBC it was resuming manufacturing in Sichuan “utilising in-house power generation”. China’s power woes are not limited to Sichuan province, which accounts for less than five per cent of the country’s economy. Extreme temperatures have caused severe drought conditions leading to drying up of rivers that has adversely impacted hydroelectricity production in many areas. Factories in Jiangsu and Chongqing are also facing power shortages. This year, the Yangtze River, Asia’s longest waterway, has seen the lowest rainfall since 1961. [caption id=“attachment_11103061” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  A woman looks for crabs in the dry riverbed of China’s Yangtze River. AP[/caption] Low rainfall, persistent heatwave China will have to endure extreme weather conditions till at least Wednesday, forecasts Morgan Stanley. According to the National Meteorological Centre’s data, Chengdu, capital of southwestern China’s Sichuan province, has experienced no showers for 15 days in August, while Nanjing and Nanchang have had no downpour this month. Last week, the drought caused wildfires in the forests of Chongqing and Sichuan, Bloomberg cited local media reports. China’s power woes As part of its power rationing efforts, last week Wuhan temporarily shut its famous Yangtze River light show. The power outages pose a critical threat to supplies of several products ranging from grains to lithium to battery materials used in electric vehicles. Besides Sichuan, which heavily depends on hydropower for electricity supply, the rest of the country uses thermal energy as its major source of power generation. China Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute has predicted in its report that more provinces are expected to undergo power outages due to a “lag in capacity expansion and insufficient grid connection”, reported Bloomberg. China’s solution to low rainfall Amid low to no rainfall, many parts of central and southwest China are striving to artificially induce rainfall with cloud-seeding. Provinces surrounding the drought-hit Yangtze River have undertaken cloud-seeding techniques to create artificial rain, while Hubei and some other provinces have catapulted rockets carrying chemicals into the sky, BBC cited local media as saying. China’s power crunch will ease, says experts While electricity disruption was caused by structural issues in the power supply last year, the cause of the problem is different this year and will be resolved once extreme heat subsides, say analysts. In September and October last year, residential areas and businesses faced power cuts as electricity generating plants had to reduce production in view of high coal prices. “Since China had a nationwide power crunch one year ago, the concern is rising that it might happen again this year,” Macquarie’s chief China Economist Larry Hu was quoted as saying by CNBC. “In our view, the chance is low, because the cause and the scale of the two power rationings are very different,” Hu added. The impact on China’s economy is expected to be lesser than in 2021, reports Bloomberg citing China International Capital Corp. “We expect this round of power rationing to affect industrial production on a limited scale,” the experts noted last week. With inputs from agencies Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.