It's been a hard winter so far for Wuhan. The capital city of Hubei province has been hit by a shortage in both natural gas and power. Stockpiles of coal have been falling rapidly since the start of the month, dealing a blow to plants which rely on coal to generate power.

Power consumption in Wuhan city has gone up since October. Coal and water which are needed to generate power are in short supply, with no immediate prospect of improvements. The current shortfall in power supply stands at 400-thousand kilowatts. More than 600 industrial companies have been told to cut back on power consumption.

Zhang Qungang, Director, Sales Dept., Wuhan Power Supply Company, said, "47 high-energy-consuming companies and big industrial companies are required to restrict power use. Another 300 companies with power consumption capacity of over 3-thousand kilowatts are restricting their power use."

Temperatures in Wuhan will drop further in the following weeks. And power consumption is expected to surge even further.

(CCTV.com December 17, 2009)