A look at China’s electricity grid: how it works, who foots the bill, and how its structure leads to power crunches and expensive prices despite the relative abundance of energy in China.
Chinese workers at the construction site of the Ximeng-Taizhou ±800kV UHVDC (high voltage direct current) Project in Taizhou city, Jiangsu Province, May 1, 2017. Credit: Imaginechina via AP Images
The cost of electricity is rising for consumers around the world. China isn’t facing the kind of dire energy crunch faced by many consumers in Europe, but recurring power outages since last year are a reminder that it has electricity problems of its own.
Data: State Grid annual reports
The weaknesses in China’s electricity grid predate the global energy shortage stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With climate change and pressure growing on China to clean up its energy act, things may get worse.
This week, The Wire looks at China’s electricity grid: how it works, who foots the bill, and how its structure leads to power crunches and expensive prices despite the relative abundance of energy in China.
GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE
The problem with China’s electricity grid isn’t one of production, but distribution. Where China’s electricity is generated and where it is most needed are not the same, thanks to a combination of geographic fac
Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our Subscriptions page for details.
Increasingly, Democrats and Republicans believe that climate change and China pose a single interconnected challenge. As a result — and for the first time ever — a window is opening for bipartisan cooperation on climate policy. Historically progressive ideas like a 'carbon border adjustment mechanism' now have conservative champions, for instance. But with Washington's main focus on the Warming War with China, can it still save the planet?
The academic talks about the changing understanding of Leninist regimes; common misperceptions of the post-Mao era; and what the collapse of the Soviet Union means for China today.
