ELECTRIC POWER PRODUCTION IN CHINA INCREASES DURING SECOND HALF OF 1950

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600370536-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 26, 2011
• Sequence Number: 536
• Publication Date: January 24, 1951
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/09/27: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600370536-6
1
DATE OF
INFORMATION 1950
II4FORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
HOW DATE DIST. x y Jan 1951
PUBLISHED Daily newspapers
WHERE NO. OF PAGES 2
PUBLISHED China
COUNTRY China
SUBJECT Economic - Public utilities; electric power
DATE
PUBLISHED 10 - 31 Oct 1950
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPOR1
CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL
THIS 00001[07 CONTAIN. INFORMATION AF-ICTIMI TNl NATIONAL DIF1011
OF THI UNITED STATUS WITHIN THl 1IIANIIO OP n-IODAi1 ACT 10
0. 1. C. 11 AND BII. Al ANU01O. ITS T1A111IIIION ON TOO 1101LATI
Ol ITS CO.NTINTN IN ANT HANN11 TO AN UNAUTN011I10 POISON IN I--'
HIIITIO IT NO. ORPRODUCTIO OF THIN FORM IN PROHIBITED.
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
ELECTRIC POWER PRODUCTION IN CHINA INCREASES
DURING SECOND HALF OF 1950
The Chinese mainland press records noteworthy improvement and increases
in electric power production in widely separated parts of the country during,
the second half of 1950. -
A concrete instance of the trend toward. centralization of the electric
power industry is the program already in progress to bring 11 of the largest
? power plants in Central and South China under unified direction and operation.
The concerns thus affected are the following publicly owned plants, the first
four of which are already being operated directly under the Ministry of Heavy
Industry at Peiping; the other seven, plants are provincially or-municipally
owned an operated: the Wu-ch'ang and Ta-yeh plants of the A-nan (South Hupeh)
Electric Power Company, the Hsia-nieh-ssu (1) umbers refer to appended char-
acter) Plant in Hunan, the Hsiang-mei (2) Coal and Electric Company in Hu-
nan, the Chi-chi (3) Water and Electric Company at Hankow, the Kwang-chow Elec-
tric Works at Canton, the Chang-sha Electric Works, the Nan-ch'ang Electric
Works, the Cheng-chou Electric Works,'the Liu-chou Electric Works, and the
Heng-yang Electric Works.
The latter seven plants are to become nationally owned enterprises and
will be taken over gradually as the Ministry of Heavy Industry finds competent
personnel to manage them. They are to be operated on behalf of the Ministry
by the Department of Industry of the Central and South China regional govern-
ment, which is now making preparations for taking them over.
It is hoped in this way to ot? late the disavantages of separate instal-
lations with dissimilar characteristics, and to convert the plants into parts
of a unified power network, as a result of which many advantages are expected
to be realized.(Hankow Ch'ang-chiang Jih-pao, 30 Oct 50; also Shang`Lai Ta Kung
Pao, 31 Oct 50). A new generator has been installed in the 0-nan No 2 plant
at Ta-yeh. (Hankow Ch'ang?Chiang Jih-pao, 22 Oct 50)
On 1 October 1950, a. new hydroelectric plant began operations at Hu-hai-
t'ang (4), 5 kilometers south of Chin-hua, Chekiang. Its source of water
supply is a natural lake about 1.3 square kilometers in area, capable of
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CONFIDENTIAL
supplying 340 horsepower of hydraulic power. At present, it is producing 200
kilowatts of electric power. Construction of this plant was made possible by
fooagrants, from the Chekiang provincial government and by grants of genera
ting machinery from the Department of Industry of the East China regional gov-
ernment. Its capacity is sufficient to supply the lighting needs of Chin-hiia,
the power needs of numerous small industries, besides solving the irrigation
problem of some 30,000 mou of rice paddies. B;. means of this irrigation, sev-
eral thousand mou of land near the village of Miz.-shao-t'ang (5) can now raise
three crops a year instead of one. It is expected that the cost of this proj-
ect can be recovered within 4 or 5 years with receipts from sale of current
alone, besides benefiting from other important increases in economic values
which accompany this development. (Shanghai Chieh-fang Jih-pao, 26 Oct 50;
Hangchow Chekiang Jih-pao, 27 Oct 50)
4
Many plants have overhauled their installations in whole or in part.
The No 4 boiler at the Hsia-kuan Power Plant at Nanking has been thoroughly
overhauled.(Nanking Hsin-huaJih-pas, 26 Oct 50) The turbine-equipped Hsu-
chou Power Plant at Suchow has been completely reconditioned with great im-
provement in operating economy and capacity.(Tsinan Ta-chung Jih-pao, 27 Oct 50
The No It generator in the Tientsin Electric Power Plant has been repaired and
overhauled.(Tientsin J.ih-Pao, 30 Oct 50)
At numerous points, drives have been made to achieve greater efficiency
in operation and thus reduce or eliminate accidents and waste. At the pri-
vately owned Ch'i-ming Electric Company in Ch'eng-tu, Szechwan, the company
effected savings that enabled it to reduce the charges for current by about
16 percent.(Shanghai Chieh-fang Jih-pao, 26 Oct 50) Similarly, the plant
in Tai-ning, Shantung, although comparatively a small one and with old ma-
chinery, has been reconditioned and its effective capacity raised by about
20 percent with an accompanying economy in coal consumption.(Tsinen, Ta-
chung Jih-pao, 27 Oct 50)
Due to more profitable operating conditions, the privately owned Ming-
hua Plant at Ping-hu, Chekiang, which supplies. power for rice-polishing mills,
flour mills, cotton gins, and vegetable oil presses, has been able to increase
its capacity by the installation of new equipment.(Hangchow, Chekiang Jih-pao,
16 Oct 50) Due to improved economic conditions in general, in September 1950
the Hangchow Electric Works increased its maximum load of 8,400 kilowatts by
24.4 percent over that for July; and its current for consumers having meters
increased by 40 percent during the same period. With this increase in produc-
tion, the unit cost of production was reduced, so that besides reserves laid
aside for depreciation, a substantial surplus was realized. For October, the
charge per unit for power current is to be reduced from 1,000 yuan to 900
yuan; and the charge per unit for lighting current is to be 2,450 yuan for
business houses and private dwellings alike.(Hangchow Chekiang Jih-pao, 10 Oct 50)
Government owned plants at Harbin, Chang-ch'un, Chia-mu-ssu, An-shan, Chin-
chou, and Ying-k'ou are among those in the Northeast which have carried on among'
themselves competition in efficiency, freedom from accidents, and elimination
of waste. (Mukden, Tung-poi .?ih-pao, 20 Oct 50)