Tag: Power Failures and Blackouts

Your Tuesday Briefing: Liz Truss Selected to Lead Britain

Chin@Strategy

Liz Truss is chosen to lead Britain Liz Truss will formally assume the prime minister’s title in a meeting today with Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. The hawkish foreign secretary will assume power as Britain faces its gravest economic crisis in a generation. Household energy bills are set to spike by 80 percent, and some economists predict that inflation will top 20 percent by early next year. In a speech, she promised a “bold plan to cut taxes,” but many believe Truss will have to announce sweeping…

China’s Record Drought is Drying Rivers and Feeding Its Coal Habit

Chin@Strategy

HONG KONG — Car assembly plants and electronics factories in southwestern China have closed for lack of power. Owners of electric cars are waiting overnight at charging stations to recharge their vehicles. Rivers are so low there that ships can no longer carry supplies. A record-setting drought and an 11-week heat wave are causing broad disruption in a region that depends on dams for more than three-quarters of its electricity generation. The factory shutdowns and logistical delays are hindering China’s efforts to revive its economy as the country’s leader, Xi…

Your Tuesday Briefing: Political Turmoil in Pakistan

Chin@Strategy

Good morning. We’re covering political turmoil in Pakistan and schools reopening in the Philippines. Political tensions swell in Pakistan Imran Khan, Pakistan’s former prime minister, was charged under the country’s antiterrorism act on Sunday. He is trying to stage a political comeback after he was ousted from power in April following a no-confidence vote. The charges followed a rally in Islamabad, the capital, where Khan condemned the recent arrest of one of his top aides and vowed to file legal cases against police officers and a judge involved in the…

Drought Hurts China’s Economy as Central Bank Cuts Rates

Chin@Strategy

HONG KONG — Record-high temperatures and a severe drought in west-central China have crippled hydropower generation and prompted the shutdown of many factories there, in the latest blow to a Chinese economy that already has stagnant consumer spending and a deeply troubled real estate market. Sichuan Province in west-central China, one of China’s most populous and a fast-growing industrial base in recent years, normally generates more than three-quarters of its electricity from huge dams. The summer rainy season usually brings so much water that Sichuan sends much of its hydropower…

China’s Power Crunch Exposes Tensions Ahead of Key U.N. Climate Summit

Chin@Strategy

Renewable energy in inland China sometimes generates more electricity than nearby consumers can use, but then at other times produces too little. Just five years ago, three inland regions that create abundant solar and wind energy power — sparsely populated Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Gansu — were wasting up to two-fifths of that power. To address this problem, China has built ultra-high-voltage transmission lines linking the country’s interior to hubs near the coast. But connectivity still has a ways to go. “New demand can more than be met by cleaner…

China Power Outages Close Factories and Threaten Growth

Chin@Strategy

DONGGUAN, China — Power cuts and even blackouts have slowed or closed factories across China in recent days, adding a new threat to the country’s slowing economy and potentially further snarling global supply chains ahead of the busy Christmas shopping season in the West. The outages have rippled across most of eastern China, where the bulk of the population lives and works. Some building managers have turned off elevators. Some municipal pumping stations have shut down, prompting one town to urge residents to store extra water for the next several…