RESIDENTS in Hubei Xincun estate in Luohu District were among many residents across the city who experienced power failures due to the unrelenting heat wave over the past week.

“Many of us have had to stay in a nearby hotel and dine at restaurants since Tuesday,” said a man, surnamed Zhang, who lives in the Luohu estate.

“Some of my neighbors could not even book a room in the hotel next to our estate because the hotel was fully booked,” said Zhang.

Over the past few days, power failures have caused great inconveniences to people across the city.

A resident in Baishizhou, Nanshan District, surnamed Zhao, complained that the food in his fridge had all become rotten as a result of a three-day blackout.

A man in Bao’an District, identified as He, said his family had also endured nights without electricity, and he was suffering from heat rash all over his body.

These are just a few of the many residents who complained about their plight on the Internet on July 30.

Some netizens revealed that not only urban villages were having this problem, but newly built neighborhoods as well.

The electrical load of the power grids in Shenzhen soared to a record high of 17.11 million kilowatts Tuesday afternoon, according to a post on the official Weibo account of China Southern Power Grid (CSG).

According to the city’s power supply bureau, the overload of power grids triggered the malfunction of some power supply facilities, resulting in the blackouts in many areas in Longgang, Bao’an, Longhua and Nanshan districts between July 29 and Monday.

Most of the affected areas were old residential buildings and urban villages, where the power supply facilities are out-dated, the bureau said.

From Tuesday to Sunday, multiple transmission lines of transformer substations across the city will take turns undergoing power outages, according to a notice issued by CSG on Monday.

At present, the bureau is doing their best to maintain the power supply in the city, it said.

The city’s power supply bureau said it would take specific measures to ensure power supply is maintained in accordance with formulated plans.

Meanwhile, residents are encouraged to reduce electricity usage, and property owners are advised to enhance the maintenance of their power supply facilities.

(Zhang Yu)