Shanghai Daily news

The city's power, gas and water supplies are under huge pressure with the cold spell.

Demand for power and gas has reached a record high and water company staff are struggling to repair frozen and burst pipelines.

Peak electricity demand hit 18 million kilowatts yesterday morning, approaching the peak capacity for this winter, forcing authorities to institute limits on industrial power users.

Eighteen heavy power users have been asked to reschedule production to non-peak hours to move the power demand, according to the Shanghai Electric Power Co.

"The principle is to ensure residential use and minimize the influence on society,'' said Shanghai Electric in a statement, adding the tight supply could force it to enhance the power control measures.

Daily natural gas consumption rose to 9.61 million cubic meters on January 24, an all time high, and stayed above last year's highest level over the weekend, according to Shanghai Gas (Group) Co.

Meanwhile, consumption of coal gas averaged nearly eight million cubic meters a day, an increase of 17 percent from December.

Gas suppliers are trying to buy more from natural gas producers, and increased production of coal gas, using not only coal but also materials like oil and liquefied gas, which are more expensive.

The bad weather has also stopped delivery of liquefied gas tanks to users not connected to gas mains. Complaints about this and or malfunctions increased 20 percent over the weekend, according to Shanghai Gas.

Water suppliers said they were cladding exposed pipelines after handling several major leaks caused by the weather.

Calls to the hot line at the Shanghai Southern Waterworks, which supplies water to areas south of Suzhou Creek, increased by 10 percent to about 1,500 a day since last Friday.