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In the memory of "half Dongguan native" Tang Xuehui, the last time the city implemented "switch-off power rationing" was more than ten years ago.

Tang Xuehui is the general manager of Dongguan Zhuoguan Footwear Co., Ltd. The company has more than a dozen production lines at home and abroad, which can produce hundreds of thousands of pairs of shoes every month, of which there are 7 forming assembly lines in the Dongguan factory. However, not long ago, Dongguan suddenly imposed a "stop power cut" on production enterprises, which made him miserable.

"In order to ensure timely delivery, the factory had to temporarily rent a generator." Tang Xuehui said, "Many factories cannot rent generators, and working hours have turned black and white, and the biological clocks are all messed up."

The disrupted "world factory"

"The scale of orders for five, six, and seven months of this year has returned to the scale of 2019." Tang Xuehui said, "all orders are now full." However, the completion of these orders may be dragged down by the "power cut".

Since May, the Dongguan factory has successively received notices from the local power supply company regarding peak-shift power consumption (also known as “switching power limit”). Since then, “open six stop one”, “open five stop two” or “open five stop two” have been activated. The operation mode of "open four stop three". The targets of "power cuts" are mainly industrial users such as Zhuoguan Shoes.

"There are two weeks with a limit of one day each, there are two stars in the middle for two days, and the last one is one day." On June 9th, Tang Xuehui said in an interview with a reporter from China Business One.

Affected by this, Tang Xuehui temporarily rented a diesel generator. As a result, the electricity price more than doubled. "It used to be 80 cents per kilowatt of electricity, now it is two dollars per kilowatt."

At the same time, due to the relatively loud noise of diesel generators, Zhuoguan Shoes Industry soon encountered complaints from surrounding residents. In the end, the company had to pay for a temporary soundproof room.

Like Zhuoguan Footwear, many factories have not had the habit of back-up diesel generators because they have not experienced "power cuts" for many years. Sudden "cutting the brakes for power restriction" suddenly made the supply of diesel generators on the market in short supply, and the rents went up.

But not every factory employee can understand the company’s immediate dilemma. Due to the unwillingness of employees to adjust their working hours to the evening, and the tight reminders from customers, the boss of a medium-sized shoe factory in Dongguan could only purchase a 600-kilowatt diesel motor. "We used to pick employees, but now employees pick us." The owner of the factory said in an interview with a reporter from China Business News.

"Power cuts" in many places

In addition to Dongguan, since May this year, many cities in Guangdong, including Foshan, Huizhou, Zhongshan, and Chaozhou, have also started power rationing modes.

In addition to Guangdong, Yunnan, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Anhui and other provinces are also facing power shortages.

The “cutting the brakes and curtailing power” caused some trouble to operators like Tang Xuehui in a short period of time. From a broader perspective, it once again raised questions about the energy structure and the reform of the power system and mechanism.