China's power supply and demand will be balanced in the second half of the year. A Chinese economic official says this will reverse the situation of power supply shortages that the country has suffered over the past four years. CRI's Xu Weiyi has the details.

The announcement was made by Zhang Guobao, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, at a news conference on Thursday.

He says there were no big power shortfalls in the first six months of this year. Only eight regions suffered from power shortages from January to April this year compared to 26 regions a year earlier.

Moreover, Zhang Guobao says the situation will continue to ease in the following six months. 

"A group of new power plants will be put into use before the summer, the peak season of power usage. In addition, the water supply is good in most regions. Therefore, power demands will strike a general balance for the latter half of this year. This will not only reverse the situation of power supply shortages since June 2002, but also become a turning point in China's power history."

China's dizzying pace of economic growth has resulted in chronic power shortages since the summer of 2002.

The government subsequently permitted more power plants to be built. In the past four years, China's power supply has maintained double-digit growth rates higher than that of GDP.

Meanwhile, he says the government will accelerate efforts to close small coal-fired units that use excessive energy and produce heavy pollution in an industry reshuffling.

"Stimulated by the great demand for power a few years ago, many illegal power plants have appeared in the country. If these illegal plants are not dealt with properly, it will lead to the deterioration of the power structure."

Coal-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 15 million kilowatts will be closed in the coming five years.

The official says China's total power installed capacity is expected to increase from the current 500 million kilowatts to 800 million kilowatts in 2010.

The power structure will be further optimized, with clean power produced by hydro, nuclear, clean coal and new energies accounting for more than 35% of total output.

Xu Weiyi, CRI News.