Singapore (Platts)--28Feb2011/517 am EST/1017 GMT
China's Premier Wen Jiabao said that power rationing carried out by some provincial governments was "wrong" and harmful to the lives of ordinary citizens and such actions must be "dealt with severely." "I was very upset when I saw the problems and asked government departments at all levels to immediately work to resume electricity supply to residents. We have dealt with a number of cadres," Wen said Sunday on an online forum organized by the official Xinhua news agency. In the fourth quarter of last year, the country was hit by a chronic shortage of diesel as local enterprises turned to the fuel to generate electricity in order to keep operating during periods of power rationing. In an effort to meet their regional targets assigned by the central government, many provincial governments chose to ration power by means of periodic blackouts over the last two months of the year. The move forced local enterprises to purchase diesel generators in order to keep operating, and led to a spike in demand for the fuel. "Energy conservation can only be achieved if small thermal power plants, steel mills and other energy intensive enterprises are shut down," Wen said on Sunday. In China's 11th five-year plan that ran from 2006 to 2010, the country sought to cut energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20% compared with 2005 levels. Even though the goal was daunting, the country achieved a 19.1% reduction after much hard work, Wen said. In the next five years, the country has set a target of reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by 16-17% from 2010 levels, he added. Earlier, Beijing pledged to reduce carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 40-45% by 2020 compared with 2005 levels, and increase the share of non-fossil fuels in its energy consumption to around 15% by 2020 from 8% currently.--Calvin Lee, calvin_lee@platts.comSimilar stories appear in Power in Asia. See more information at http://bit.ly/PowerinAsia