Starting from April this year, there are over 1 million kilowatts of electricity gaps in North China, East China and Central China, and some provinces have entered a wave of power cuts that are almost a year old. In June, the high temperatures in recent days continue to increase, and the power gap will further increase, and electricity shortages will spread.

The main reason for the shortage of electricity is to enter a peak period of electricity use during the summer. On the other hand, hydropower has been affected by the drought this year, and power generation has declined. Thermal power, which accounts for the majority of China's power generation, has caused power generation companies to generate more electricity as they lose more, and they are unwilling to increase power generation. Nuclear power currently only occupies a small part and has little impact on the whole. Although the NDRC has previously raised the on-grid tariffs for thermal power and hydropower and the electricity prices for enterprises in 15 provinces, the electricity shortage has not yet eased.

In order to ease the annual power shortage, the National Development and Reform Commission proposed a ladder-based electricity pricing plan for residents. In October last year, the “Ladder Electricity Price Reform Plan (Draft for Soliciting Opinions)” issued two programs. The “starting price” of Option One was 110 kWh. The household electricity consumption is lower than 110 kWh, the electricity price remains basically stable, and then the price increases are respectively made within and beyond 210 kWh. The “starting price” for the scheme 2 is 140 kWh. The initial stage electricity price increases by 1 cent per kilowatt hour. Afterwards, prices were raised within and beyond 270 kWh. However, rising electricity prices will have an impact on residents' inflation expectations. The excuse of increasing prices for more products will increase the public’s perception of inflation and bring about a feeling of price increase. The NDRC may choose to implement it when inflation is moderate in the second half of the year, but if inflation is still high, it may also be delayed. However, China’s household electricity consumption accounts for less than 13% of total electricity consumption, according to data from the National Energy Administration, 2011. From January to April of this year, the country's electricity consumption increased by 12.4%, of which 60% is the growth of heavy industry electricity consumption, indicating that the growth of high energy-consuming industries has experienced an abnormal rebound. Therefore, the implementation of the ladder price for residents is expected to have little effect on relieving the power shortage. Even if the electricity consumption of residents is limited, the electricity saved is also a drop in the entire power shortage.

However, simply raising the price of electricity for enterprises cannot fundamentally solve the “electricity shortage” problem. As the main raw material for coal-fired power generation, the price of coal will follow the trend of rising electricity prices to follow the trend, which will eventually lead to a vicious circle of cyclical increases in coal prices and electricity prices.

In order to fundamentally solve the “electricity shortage” problem, the government must fundamentally adjust and “open source and reduce expenditure”. Open Source: Intensify the construction of power grids and electric power, match the development of electric power with economic development, and accelerate the construction of UHV power grids. Throttling: To adjust the economic structure, upgrade the industries with high energy consumption, and eliminate backward production capacity.

The full recovery of manufacturing after the financial crisis is one of the reasons for the power shortage. In fact, small and medium-sized manufacturing companies also hope to reduce production energy consumption and save costs. However, in the short-term, their technological innovation capability is limited. At this time, government support is also needed and policies encouraging SMEs to reduce energy consumption reforms should be introduced. Only by allowing enterprises to achieve transformation can the economy develop healthily. In order to make the annual electricity shortage not so drastic, even from the electric shortage.