WEBVTT - Dan Murtaugh on Sichuan (Audio)

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<v Speaker 1>Let's move on now and talk about China's southwestern province

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<v Speaker 1>of Sichuan, which has restored most power supplies for industries

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<v Speaker 1>and businesses. This happened by Sunday at noon, according to

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<v Speaker 1>State television. Joining us to discuss this Downmotile Bloomberg, Asia

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<v Speaker 1>Energy Reporter with us in Beijing. So I thing starting

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<v Speaker 1>to get a little bit better from when we spoke

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<v Speaker 1>to you last week down because we're kind of seeing

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<v Speaker 1>a little bit of cooler weather as well. Yeah, Juels,

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<v Speaker 1>we're seeing a lot of a lot of relief from

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<v Speaker 1>the weather gods. It started raining over the weekend in

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<v Speaker 1>Sichuan and the weather has dropped precipitously. Air conditioning demand

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<v Speaker 1>dropped from about twenty four gigawatts a week ago to

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<v Speaker 1>about twelve gigawatts on Sunday, and hydropower generation, which is

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<v Speaker 1>pretty low right now, has inched up a little bit

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<v Speaker 1>as well. That means that there's a little bit more

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<v Speaker 1>of a cushion for the power system. So the province

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<v Speaker 1>was able to stop. It's you know, full cutoff of

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<v Speaker 1>power industrial facilities. There are still some curbs and it

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<v Speaker 1>hasn't been a power restored to factories, but it's a

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<v Speaker 1>lot better than it was this time last week, and

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<v Speaker 1>so cooler weather reducing air conditioning mind as well tell

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<v Speaker 1>us that I guess the impact HEATA factories and what

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<v Speaker 1>kind of restarting we're seeing. Well, we're seeing a Honda,

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<v Speaker 1>for example, is looking to restart their power parts factory

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<v Speaker 1>in the city. We're still waiting as companies kind of

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<v Speaker 1>wake up to this news this morning for more releases

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<v Speaker 1>on specifics as far as who's restarting a capacity, who's

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<v Speaker 1>just sort of slowly ramping up production. Um, it's going

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<v Speaker 1>to be interesting to see because, as you know, Sichuan

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<v Speaker 1>is a major hub for a couple of industries, including

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<v Speaker 1>e V batteries and solar panels, So people will be

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<v Speaker 1>sort of carefully watching those industries to see how quickly

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<v Speaker 1>they can ramp up production again and get the supply

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<v Speaker 1>chain for their industries. Back on track, I mentioned that

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<v Speaker 1>we are seeing a little bit of cooler weather. What

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<v Speaker 1>what are we expecting. Is it going to be some

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<v Speaker 1>like quite significant change in rain or what is actually expected? Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, I mean you never exactly know what the weather,

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<v Speaker 1>but it is very very good in the forecast right now.

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<v Speaker 1>So Sichuan has had the worst drought in more than

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<v Speaker 1>sixty years since the beginning of July. But for the

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<v Speaker 1>next couple of days, they're expecting rainfall to be about

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<v Speaker 1>above average, so so hopefully a lot of water to

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<v Speaker 1>soak back into these depleted reservoirs. And then we're also

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<v Speaker 1>going to see cooler weather move across China into the

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<v Speaker 1>eastern parts in the south parts of the country, which

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<v Speaker 1>while they haven't had an extreme power such situation as

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<v Speaker 1>sich one, they've also seen factories have to sort of

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<v Speaker 1>shift shift their operations around to use power at off

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<v Speaker 1>peak times because there wasn't enough power to go around.

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<v Speaker 1>So that might start to ease a little bit as

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<v Speaker 1>we get to the end of this week and next weekend,

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<v Speaker 1>and then you know, hopefully now we'll be in September

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<v Speaker 1>and we'll start to get cooler weather and we'll have

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<v Speaker 1>a month or two of relief from that. What our

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<v Speaker 1>authorities doing to try and ensure that this doesn't happen again.

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<v Speaker 1>Is there any kind of preparation for looking at potentially

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<v Speaker 1>other different resources and stockpiling too. Yeah, you know, there's

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<v Speaker 1>a couple of things that they're doing on a national level.

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<v Speaker 1>What China has done this year is really increased coal

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<v Speaker 1>production to and boost their coal inventories around the country

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<v Speaker 1>to be able to have stockpiles here if if it's necessary.

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<v Speaker 1>Sichuan and UH and its neighbor Union are sort of

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<v Speaker 1>particularly unique provinces because they have historically been very reliant

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<v Speaker 1>on hydro power. Sichuan it gets about of its power

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<v Speaker 1>capacity from its big dams along the Once River and

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<v Speaker 1>other parts UH, and so they were just really affected

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<v Speaker 1>by this historic drought here. UM. But China is looking

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<v Speaker 1>at a couple of specific measures to deal with the

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<v Speaker 1>Sichuan issue. One is, you know, just sort of increasing

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<v Speaker 1>power capacity generation UM. You know that means windmills and

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<v Speaker 1>solar plants, but also probably coal and gas power plants

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<v Speaker 1>to deal with with peaks. And the other is looking

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<v Speaker 1>at increasing building of power lines to get more UM

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<v Speaker 1>grid interconnectedness because you know, this whole time that Sichuan

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<v Speaker 1>was shut off, there were other parts of the country

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<v Speaker 1>that had plenty of excess power capacity just didn't have

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<v Speaker 1>an infrastructure to move it down to Sishuan. So better

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<v Speaker 1>interconnecting the regional grids within the country could go a

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<v Speaker 1>long way to solving these issues in the future. And

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<v Speaker 1>just getting back to the weather. The great surround Bloomberg

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<v Speaker 1>about rain seating drones. Tell us about that. Yeah, so

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<v Speaker 1>this is something that China specializes in. They have the

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<v Speaker 1>They basically fly airplanes or drones into the sky whenever

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<v Speaker 1>the humidity levels rise enough, and they dropped these rain

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<v Speaker 1>seating technology. It's it's usually like silver iodide or or

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<v Speaker 1>different rods that are designed to sort of pull the

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<v Speaker 1>moisture in the air together until it's dense enough that

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<v Speaker 1>rain drop. Let's fall in the rain actually instead of

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<v Speaker 1>you know, staying up as water vapor in the atmosphere

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<v Speaker 1>drops down onto the ground and you know, helps crops

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<v Speaker 1>and helps rain. They've done this before the Olympics. For example,

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<v Speaker 1>in two thousand and eight, they seated the rain clouds

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<v Speaker 1>to make sure it rain before the Olympics so the

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<v Speaker 1>skies were clear when the athletes came as. China has

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<v Speaker 1>a long and proud history of doing it. The it

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<v Speaker 1>seems we've worked this weekend as the rain came down,

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<v Speaker 1>although scientists are still sort of I would say up

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<v Speaker 1>in the air about how it actually is all right

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<v Speaker 1>down Thank you as always down Myrtel Bloomberg, Asia Energy

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<v Speaker 1>Reporter with US in Beijings and fascinating reporting by the

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<v Speaker 1>team on what is happening in Situan.