The nationwide power shortage situation became even severe in 2003. Facing this stern power supply/ demand situation, the State Council Administrative Office issued the Notice of Strengthening Earnestly Power Supply Management on April 21, which called for all departments under the State Council, local governments and power enterprises to strengthen leaderships, make concerted efforts, take effective measures to alleviate power supply shortage, and ensure passing safely through the peak demand period. The government related departments had pushed forward actively the demand side management (DSM), strongly advocated electricity saving ideology, and insisted on the way of new type industrialization with low energy consumption and high output.

The major data of power supply in 2003 is shown in Table 2. Comparing with 2002, the electricity generation increased by 15.17% and the utilization hours were 5245 h, growing 385 h. The utilization hours for thermal power units were 5767 h, 495 h higher than that of 2002. While those of hydro power units were 3239 h, 50 h lower than that of 2002 since there were few rains in the most areas in 2003.

Table 1 Trends of energy intensity and share of electricity consumption