Although the Huaneng Yueyang power plant was designed to provide less than 8 percent of Hunan's electricity demand, due to the recent bad weather it is currently producing almost a third of it.

Since last month, the plant has spent more than 150 million yuan ($20.9 million) on coal in order to maintain reserves of at least 100,000 tons.

Power transmission in Hunan has been badly hit following 20 days of unrelenting snow.

Currently, just half of the total power demand for power is being met in Hunan and the province's 19 plants have 430,000 tons of stored coal.

Huaneng, China's largest power producer with 10 percent of the total installed capacity, said power will not be disrupted due to coal shortages.

"We are working at full steam to ensure supplies, especially in snow-hit regions," Huaneng president Li Xiaopeng said.

Coal supplies are the companies' top concern, he said, adding plants had increased coal supplies.

In January the daily power output of Huaneng was 1.05 billion kWh, up 18 percent on the same period last year.

The country's largest power transmission company, State Grid, said it had resumed power supplies to more than 10 million families.

State Grid president Liu Zhenya said at least 80 percent of homes in rural Hunan would be reconnected to the grid before the Spring Festival.

China Southern Power Grid said it had dispatched 20,000 people to repair lines and infrastructure in Guizhou.

(China Daily February 5, 2008)