Coal forces electricity prices up

The retail price of electricity was lifted an average US$0.0032 a kilowatt-hour Friday to ease pressure on power producers facing higher coal prices and requirements to clean up their plants. It is the first adjustment since May 2005 and was made under a government-set mechanism pegging the cost of power to the market price of coal. The size of the increase varied widely across the country. On-grid prices, which mandate the price domestic power producers can charge state-owned grid companies, were raised by US$0.0014 a kilowatt-hour on average, the China Securities Journal said Friday.