1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:03,040 Speaker 1: Let's move on now and talk about China's southwestern province 2 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:06,080 Speaker 1: of Sichuan, which has restored most power supplies for industries 3 00:00:06,120 --> 00:00:09,200 Speaker 1: and businesses. This happened by Sunday at noon, according to 4 00:00:09,240 --> 00:00:12,639 Speaker 1: State television. Joining us to discuss this Downmotile Bloomberg, Asia 5 00:00:12,720 --> 00:00:15,960 Speaker 1: Energy Reporter with us in Beijing. So I thing starting 6 00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:18,119 Speaker 1: to get a little bit better from when we spoke 7 00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:20,080 Speaker 1: to you last week down because we're kind of seeing 8 00:00:20,239 --> 00:00:23,120 Speaker 1: a little bit of cooler weather as well. Yeah, Juels, 9 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:24,960 Speaker 1: we're seeing a lot of a lot of relief from 10 00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:27,639 Speaker 1: the weather gods. It started raining over the weekend in 11 00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:31,280 Speaker 1: Sichuan and the weather has dropped precipitously. Air conditioning demand 12 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:33,960 Speaker 1: dropped from about twenty four gigawatts a week ago to 13 00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:37,839 Speaker 1: about twelve gigawatts on Sunday, and hydropower generation, which is 14 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:40,120 Speaker 1: pretty low right now, has inched up a little bit 15 00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:42,680 Speaker 1: as well. That means that there's a little bit more 16 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:45,440 Speaker 1: of a cushion for the power system. So the province 17 00:00:45,479 --> 00:00:48,199 Speaker 1: was able to stop. It's you know, full cutoff of 18 00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:51,680 Speaker 1: power industrial facilities. There are still some curbs and it 19 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:55,360 Speaker 1: hasn't been a power restored to factories, but it's a 20 00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:57,760 Speaker 1: lot better than it was this time last week, and 21 00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:01,279 Speaker 1: so cooler weather reducing air conditioning mind as well tell 22 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:03,480 Speaker 1: us that I guess the impact HEATA factories and what 23 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:07,720 Speaker 1: kind of restarting we're seeing. Well, we're seeing a Honda, 24 00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:12,080 Speaker 1: for example, is looking to restart their power parts factory 25 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:14,800 Speaker 1: in the city. We're still waiting as companies kind of 26 00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:17,160 Speaker 1: wake up to this news this morning for more releases 27 00:01:17,240 --> 00:01:22,160 Speaker 1: on specifics as far as who's restarting a capacity, who's 28 00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:25,360 Speaker 1: just sort of slowly ramping up production. Um, it's going 29 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:27,360 Speaker 1: to be interesting to see because, as you know, Sichuan 30 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:31,000 Speaker 1: is a major hub for a couple of industries, including 31 00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:34,600 Speaker 1: e V batteries and solar panels, So people will be 32 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:37,839 Speaker 1: sort of carefully watching those industries to see how quickly 33 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:41,120 Speaker 1: they can ramp up production again and get the supply 34 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:45,000 Speaker 1: chain for their industries. Back on track, I mentioned that 35 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:46,960 Speaker 1: we are seeing a little bit of cooler weather. What 36 00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:48,840 Speaker 1: what are we expecting. Is it going to be some 37 00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:53,760 Speaker 1: like quite significant change in rain or what is actually expected? Yeah, 38 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:55,600 Speaker 1: you know, I mean you never exactly know what the weather, 39 00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:58,280 Speaker 1: but it is very very good in the forecast right now. 40 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:01,760 Speaker 1: So Sichuan has had the worst drought in more than 41 00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:04,640 Speaker 1: sixty years since the beginning of July. But for the 42 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:07,160 Speaker 1: next couple of days, they're expecting rainfall to be about 43 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:10,800 Speaker 1: above average, so so hopefully a lot of water to 44 00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:13,959 Speaker 1: soak back into these depleted reservoirs. And then we're also 45 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:17,080 Speaker 1: going to see cooler weather move across China into the 46 00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:20,480 Speaker 1: eastern parts in the south parts of the country, which 47 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:24,760 Speaker 1: while they haven't had an extreme power such situation as 48 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:27,800 Speaker 1: sich one, they've also seen factories have to sort of 49 00:02:27,800 --> 00:02:32,119 Speaker 1: shift shift their operations around to use power at off 50 00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:35,359 Speaker 1: peak times because there wasn't enough power to go around. 51 00:02:35,560 --> 00:02:37,280 Speaker 1: So that might start to ease a little bit as 52 00:02:37,320 --> 00:02:39,520 Speaker 1: we get to the end of this week and next weekend, 53 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:41,800 Speaker 1: and then you know, hopefully now we'll be in September 54 00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:43,880 Speaker 1: and we'll start to get cooler weather and we'll have 55 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:47,359 Speaker 1: a month or two of relief from that. What our 56 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:50,639 Speaker 1: authorities doing to try and ensure that this doesn't happen again. 57 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:54,600 Speaker 1: Is there any kind of preparation for looking at potentially 58 00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:58,399 Speaker 1: other different resources and stockpiling too. Yeah, you know, there's 59 00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:00,720 Speaker 1: a couple of things that they're doing on a national level. 60 00:03:00,919 --> 00:03:04,280 Speaker 1: What China has done this year is really increased coal 61 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:08,400 Speaker 1: production to and boost their coal inventories around the country 62 00:03:08,639 --> 00:03:12,440 Speaker 1: to be able to have stockpiles here if if it's necessary. 63 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:15,680 Speaker 1: Sichuan and UH and its neighbor Union are sort of 64 00:03:15,720 --> 00:03:21,160 Speaker 1: particularly unique provinces because they have historically been very reliant 65 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:23,840 Speaker 1: on hydro power. Sichuan it gets about of its power 66 00:03:23,880 --> 00:03:27,280 Speaker 1: capacity from its big dams along the Once River and 67 00:03:27,320 --> 00:03:30,600 Speaker 1: other parts UH, and so they were just really affected 68 00:03:30,600 --> 00:03:33,560 Speaker 1: by this historic drought here. UM. But China is looking 69 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:35,480 Speaker 1: at a couple of specific measures to deal with the 70 00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:38,880 Speaker 1: Sichuan issue. One is, you know, just sort of increasing 71 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:42,760 Speaker 1: power capacity generation UM. You know that means windmills and 72 00:03:42,760 --> 00:03:45,600 Speaker 1: solar plants, but also probably coal and gas power plants 73 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:48,560 Speaker 1: to deal with with peaks. And the other is looking 74 00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:52,800 Speaker 1: at increasing building of power lines to get more UM 75 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:55,920 Speaker 1: grid interconnectedness because you know, this whole time that Sichuan 76 00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:58,000 Speaker 1: was shut off, there were other parts of the country 77 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:00,600 Speaker 1: that had plenty of excess power capacity just didn't have 78 00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:03,280 Speaker 1: an infrastructure to move it down to Sishuan. So better 79 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:05,880 Speaker 1: interconnecting the regional grids within the country could go a 80 00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:08,000 Speaker 1: long way to solving these issues in the future. And 81 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:11,000 Speaker 1: just getting back to the weather. The great surround Bloomberg 82 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:14,680 Speaker 1: about rain seating drones. Tell us about that. Yeah, so 83 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:17,960 Speaker 1: this is something that China specializes in. They have the 84 00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:22,640 Speaker 1: They basically fly airplanes or drones into the sky whenever 85 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:26,400 Speaker 1: the humidity levels rise enough, and they dropped these rain 86 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:29,599 Speaker 1: seating technology. It's it's usually like silver iodide or or 87 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:32,440 Speaker 1: different rods that are designed to sort of pull the 88 00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:34,880 Speaker 1: moisture in the air together until it's dense enough that 89 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:37,159 Speaker 1: rain drop. Let's fall in the rain actually instead of 90 00:04:37,240 --> 00:04:39,360 Speaker 1: you know, staying up as water vapor in the atmosphere 91 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:43,120 Speaker 1: drops down onto the ground and you know, helps crops 92 00:04:43,120 --> 00:04:46,760 Speaker 1: and helps rain. They've done this before the Olympics. For example, 93 00:04:46,760 --> 00:04:49,080 Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight, they seated the rain clouds 94 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:50,800 Speaker 1: to make sure it rain before the Olympics so the 95 00:04:50,839 --> 00:04:54,000 Speaker 1: skies were clear when the athletes came as. China has 96 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:58,400 Speaker 1: a long and proud history of doing it. The it 97 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:00,760 Speaker 1: seems we've worked this weekend as the rain came down, 98 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:03,680 Speaker 1: although scientists are still sort of I would say up 99 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:08,240 Speaker 1: in the air about how it actually is all right 100 00:05:08,279 --> 00:05:10,960 Speaker 1: down Thank you as always down Myrtel Bloomberg, Asia Energy 101 00:05:10,960 --> 00:05:13,760 Speaker 1: Reporter with US in Beijings and fascinating reporting by the 102 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:16,120 Speaker 1: team on what is happening in Situan.