Powering Olympics made priority despite shortages

State Grid Corp of China, which transmits and distributes electricity in 26 provinces, said it is prioritizing supplies to the Olympics, forcing local governments in at least five provinces to limit consumption despite already facing a major power shortfall, Bloomberg reported. The country’s power deficit has reached 17 gigawatts from the previous year in areas covered by State Grid’s network, the company said on its website yesterday. The situation may worsen if coal supplies do not improve, it added. Almost 3% of the country’s coal-fired generation capacity was left unused last month because of the coal deficit, but large cities such as Shanghai and Beijing were not affected.