China urges grid firms to speed up repair work

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has urged grid firms to mobilize all available forces to speed up repairs of power facilities damaged in snow and ice storms in the south of the country to ensure power supply to residents before the Lunar New Year starts on Feb 7.

Snow and ice have disrupted supplies of power, water and transportation in many parts of southern China, sending prices of daily necessities soaring.

Swathes of southern and central China have been blacked out for days after freezing storms left transport links at a standstill, killed scores of people and forced some metals smelters to shut capacity.

Repair works on power lines connected to residential houses, railways, water and gas utilities, communication facilities, financial institutions and energy producers should be prioritized, said a task force for energy and communication and disaster relief under the State Council.

The State Grid Corporation of China and China Southern Grid Corp, China's duopoly in power transmission and sales, needed to dispatch experienced technicians and workers to regions hit by the disaster to speed up restoration, the task force said in an announcement on a government Web site (www.ndrc.gov.cn).

Power supply should be rationed to first serve residents, public facilities and users involved in national security, while flows to energy-intensive and polluting industries should be curbed, it said in a separate announcement.

Power plants lacking enough coal stocks for 10 days of generation should reduce output and cut usage, while coal stocks in key plants must be maintained above that level.

It also asked state-owned coal mines to increase output and continue production during the Lunar New Year, while railway and shipping departments were urged to boost coal shipments to help replenish stocks.

(Reporting by Jim Bai; editing by Anne Marie Roantree)