Several cities across the country are taking part in an energy conservation program called "Demand Side Management Green Lighting." The trial project is designed to partially solve the nation's power shortage.

With subsidies from participating local governments and international organizations, including the United Nations Development Program and the Global Environment Fund, the project helps consumers buy and use comparatively expensive energy-saving fluorescent lamps, rather than former incandescent ones.

In Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, the project plans to promote 300,000 energy-saving lamps this year and the local government plans to add 200,000 more. In Shanghai, the figure is 400,000 lamps.

China has been suffering a shortage of power for the past two years. Electricity demand in Shanghai will reach 12.8 million kilowatts this winter -- a shortage of 2 million kilowatts.

Facing the shortage, the government has promised to give power priority to residential quarters and schools. Lighting accounts for 10 percent of Shanghai's total energy consumption.

China is the world's biggest lighting products producer, with output reaching 7.4 billion lamps in 2001, including 1.3 billion fluorescent ones. But because of low prices, most Chinese families are still using incandescent lamps.

Experts said that fluorescent lamps, especially energy-saving ones, have better light efficiency and are more durable compared with incandescent ones.

A recent survey held in Shanghai shows 45 percent of lamps used in the city are incandescent and another 15 percent are non-energy-saving fluorescent ones.

"By 2010, if we could replace 20 million incandescent lamps with energy-saving fluorescent ones in Shanghai, the power saved would equal 400 million yuan of investment in power station construction," said Chen Jinhai, a local official in charge of energy-saving and environmental protection.

(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2004)