China power outages

[ruffrecords]

I got this email today from AllPCB, a Chinese PCB manufacturer:

Dear

To commit the promise to the world that China will meet the emission peak in year 2030 and carbon neutrality in year 2060, Chinese local governments have taken strict-ever actions to reduce release of CO2 and energy comsumption by restricted supply of electricity power. Perhaps you have noticed that the recent "dual control of energy consumption”policy of the Chinese government. Which has a certain impact on the production capacity of some manufacturing companies, and the delivery of orders in some industries has to be delayed.

Some areas supply 5 days and stop 2 days in a week, some supply 3 and stop 4 days, some even just supply 2 days but stop 5 days.
1:Forexample: Jiangsu, Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces has been adjusted to "run for 6 days and stop 1 day" in our factory
2: Some areas in the Pearl River Delta region (like Shenzhen) are already experiencing "run for 1 days and stop for 6 days", which is seriously affecting production.


To keep the bottom profit, we will have to increase our PCB price (at least 5%) accordingly in early October.
To mitigate the impacts of these restrictions,we recommend that you place the order as soon as possible.

Regards

Cheers

Ian

 

[Winston OBoogie]

Interesting. Are they trying to hit that carbon neutrality target, or did they just forget to pay the bill?

 

[JohnRoberts]

That sounds like they are trying to polish a turd.....

A central planned economy like China is not very transparent but there are multiple explanations for transient power outages, other than carbon release. It's a large country with different factors in different regions.

JR

PS: I wonder if the petrol hoarding is because consumers heard about natural gas supply shortage?

 

[Tubetec]

The media here are full of warnings about security of supply of energy into the future.
The price of gas as well as domestic electricity are seeing huge rises .
We have taken on commitments relating to chemical /pharma Industry and data centres from the likes of Apple
that will be supplied electricity ,at a price ,come hell or high water . It will consume a sizable part of Irelands renewable energy into the future , so Apple or what ever other entitity gets the 'clean' green credentials its investors are demanding , meanwhile poorer people in a lower standard of housing (that needs more heating) stand to have their energy usage curtailed , not just electricity supply but the other kinds of fuels they use to heat their homes may no longer be an option for environmental reasons . In certain places Turf will no longer be harvested , bringing to the end a generations used fuel source and part of the local economy ,
The 1000 liters of heating oil last year cost 420 euros , right now its getting close to 800euros .


Thundberg's wicked witchy poo routine should land her a role in the next Harry Potter movie .

 

[JohnRoberts]

Energy shortages are pretty much self inflicted..... It's odd how so many of the public are convinced that climate change is an imminent existential crisis, while the unintended consequences of throttling energy supply are somehow insignificant and worth the pain/cost.

This seems like a remake of the idiocracy movie.

JR

 

[Brian Roth]

Here in "flyover USA" Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma the gas and electric utlilties are wrangling with the state Corp. Commissions on how recoup billions of dollars after the insanely cold snap last Feb. when "spot" natural gas prices went to $1,192/MMBtu on February 17 from $2.91/MMBtu the previous week. Last I saw in the regional news, the gas and electric generator companies are requesting $10-$20/month extra from each residential customer for the next 10 years.

I dunno...price gouging? I'm just a little old semi-retired guy. At least my gas and electric is supplied by "regulated monopolies" with some sort of cushion for consumers. Some towns here in Kansas have a locally owned gas utility, and residential consumers received gas bills well into the thousands of dollars for that time.

Quoting (out of context) Crosby Stills and Nash: "Something happening here, What is is ain't exactly clear..."

Bri

 

[hodad]

Energy shortages are pretty much self inflicted..... It's odd how so many of the public are convinced that climate change is an imminent existential crisis, while the unintended consequences of throttling energy supply are somehow insignificant and worth the pain/cost.

JR

I agree with the start of this. Arab oil embargo, the damage Enron did to California, Texas's idiotic power disaster last winter,\ etc. But I finally saw some info on the blackouts in China, and it appears the problem is with coal and not with renewable energy sources. Coal imports from Australia have stopped (trade spat), and coal prices in China have unsurprisingly increased substantially. So, it's sweet and all that you took the opportunity to bash people who care about climate change, but this self-inflicted energy shortage has nothing to do with that at all.

 

[scott2000]

I'm confused. So the allpcb letter is taking one scenario and spinning it as a more noble one?

 

[ruffrecords]

I'm confused. So the allpcb letter is taking one scenario and spinning it as a more noble one?

I think that may be the case. China is certainly building loads more coal fired power stations which does not quite stack up with aiming for carbon neutrality.

Cheers

IAn

 

[JohnRoberts]

I think that may be the case. China is certainly building loads more coal fired power stations which does not quite stack up with aiming for carbon neutrality.

Cheers

IAn

Indeed China is currently expanding all types of energy generation. They are not shy about burning coal, and their inclusion into the Paris accord was with a wink and a nod, "you can reduce carbon use later" (by then they will have a much higher level of use to cut from, making cuts look better. )

One Chinese energy policy shift is funding less coal plants in other countries. I expect reasons for this are two fold. One reason, many nations are losing interest in expanding coal use as it becomes publicly unpopular. A second reason is simple self-interest. If they can't get as much coal as they want to burn already, why help create more worldwide coal demand?

JR

PS: UK is planning to open a new deep coal mine (Cumbria?) to extract metallurgical coal (for making steel). Of course there is still opposition to any fossil fuel use.

PPS: bitcoin miners are cutting long term electric power deals with nuclear plants so they can mine "green" bitcoins. Perhaps these should be called "glowing" bitcoins.