Shanghai city authorities have ordered all decorative lightning on riverfront skyscrapers and other buildings that give China’s economic hub its iconic look, to be turned off, amid skyrocketing electric power demand triggered by an epic heatwave.
In a decree published yesterday, city officials ordered the ‘landscape lighting’ in Shanghai’s famous Bund district to be turned off for two days starting today.
The same order applies to all billboards and video screens on both sides of the Huangpu River, Shanghai’s leaders added.
According to Shanghai city officials, the restrictive measure is aimed at easing the pressure on the national power grid amid soaring electricity consumption triggered by a historic heatwave, that has hit several provinces in China and sent electricity consumption surging.
With temperatures reaching a sweltering +113 F degrees (+45 C), increased use of A/C has pushed electric power demand up considerably.
Moreover, water levels in parts of the Yangtze River, China’s key inland waterway, have fallen significantly, putting yet more pressure on the hydroelectric plants that supply electricity to some of China’s most developed and power-consuming economic centers.
As the situation with electricity shortage has become dire in some parts of the country, local authorities in the southwestern Sichuan province extended for four more days a previously imposed power rationing scheme for industrial consumers.
“Since July of this year, the province has faced the most extreme high temperatures, the lowest rainfall in the corresponding period in history… {and} the highest power load in history,” officials said.
Industrial analysts have already warned that the electric power cuts in Sichuan could affect global supply chains, given that the province is also home to some major parts manufacturers.
Several car-manufacturing facilities, including the factories operated by Toyota and Elon Musk’s Tesla, have already halted production.
