TO heed the call of power saving, the large-scale light shows in Shenzhen will be suspended during the National Day holiday until further notice, according to the city’s urban administration and law enforcement bureau.

The National Day holiday will begin from tomorrow to Oct. 7.

During previous major festivals, colorful and glittering light shows were staged in the city’s key areas such as Futian CBD, the central areas of Qianhai and Houhai, Binhai Cultural Park, as well as on both sides of several main roads like Shennan and Binhai boulevards.

The nightscape lighting will still be kept every evening to create a festive vibe during this year’s National Day holiday, but its schedule will be changed from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., which will save 23,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day.

Currently, Shenzhen’s power supply bureau has started to implement orderly power consumption in line with an emergency plan for the year, according to Shenzhen Special Zone Daily.

In terms of scheduled blackouts, the city’s power supply bureau said that these will have little impact on industry, commerce and residents. Only a few areas that do not have uninterrupted operation conditions will have short-term power outage.

The Energy Bureau of Guangdong Province recently issued a proposal to call on the whole society to work together for orderly power consumption and conservation to ensure the safe supply of electricity.

According to the bureau, this round of orderly power consumption is mainly aimed at industrial users and will not affect residential users.

Liu Wensheng, deputy director of the bureau, attributed electricity shortages to the province’s strong economic rebound in the recent months, price increases for coal and natural gas, and soaring temperatures in the warm southern region that trigger spikes in air-conditioner use.

Guangdong has introduced staggered peak power consumption rules to ease the heavy pressure on electricity supply and help ensure the safe operation of the power grid.

Priority will be given to residential power consumers and the province’s service industries.

Electricity consumption reached more than 525.27 billion kilowatt-hours in the first eight months this year, up 17.33 percent year on year.

Liu said power consumption in Guangdong will continue to grow in the coming months, as September and October are typically the peak periods for industrial production and fall heat waves continue to hit the province. Factories usually attract many orders before the Christmas and New Year holidays, he said.

Temperatures in Guangdong reached 34 to 38 degrees Celsius in September so far, up 3 to 4 degrees Celsius from the same period last year.

In addition to requiring power stations to increase their output, various departments will negotiate and coordinate to purchase more electricity from the western part of the country, he said.                            (Zhang Yu)