In China, is there constant electricity supply for 24 hours throughout the year?

中国有全年24小时不间断的电力供应吗？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Shane Rooney

I turned to my Chinese friend and asked. This is the conversation.

Me: When was the last time you lost electricity

Her: Lost electricity? I don’t understand.

Me: When was the last time that the government stop supplying electricity.

Her: When?

Me: yes.

我找我的中国朋友核实这个问题。以下是我们的对话。

我：你上一次经历断电是什么时候？

她：断电？我不明白。

我：上一次政府停止供电是什么时候？

她：什么时候？

我：是的。

Her: The last time they need to fix something. They cut the electricity. Fix it.

Me: When was that?

Her: It is getting less and less. The last time it happened was when something burnt.

Me: Burnt? …

Her: [looks up on phone] short circuit. But this is very rare. Did you forget to pay the electricity? forget to pay for your light at home so now the lights don’t turn on.

她：应该是上一次他们要修什么东西，所以切断了电源来维修。

我：那是什么时候？

她：这种事越来越少见了。上次是有东西烧了。

我：烧？.．.

她：(抬头看电话)就是短路了。但这种情况很少很少。你是不是忘记交电费了？忘记交电费，所以现在开不了灯了。

Me: No. Nothing like that.

Her: Then why you ask.

Me: No reason.

Her: I think the last time was in 2005. do you know why? Too many people turn on their Air-Con and there is not enough electrcity. So the government build more power plants. Do you know __________. It is very famous.

Me: (doesn’t reply. too busy ty up this answer)

我：不是的。不是那样的。

她：那你为什么还要问。

我：就是想问问嘛。

她：我记得上一次断电是2005年的事了。你猜是为什么？因为太多人开空调，导致电力不足了。所以政府建了很多发电厂。你知道__________吗？可有名了。

我：(我没回答。我正忙着把答案在电脑上打出来)

Her: Three gorges hydro electric…

Me: Three gorges dam. In English it is just called “three gorges dam”

Not only do they have electricity supply 24 hours a day, but the last time my friend remembers there being a blackout WAS IN 2005. That is impressive.

她：三峡水电……

我：三峡大坝。在英语中，它就叫“三峡大坝”。

他们不仅有24小时的电力供应，我朋友记得的上一次停电居然是在2005年。这太令人印象深刻了。

Naive

In big cities like Beiing, yes, there is a constant electricity supply on a 24*7*365 basis. There could be planned switch off at midnight several times each year, but the power outage lasts for less than 5 minutes in total.

In small cities or countries, like my hometown (a very small city with only a hundred thousand population), there could be one or two electricity outages a year. Each time it could last for several hours.

在北京这样的大城市，是的，有24*7*365的不间断电力供应。每年都会有几次提前计划好的午夜停电，但停电总持续时间都不会超过5分钟。

在小城市或农村，比如我的家乡(一个只有10万人口的非常小的城市)，一年可能会停电一两次，每次持续几个小时。

But when I was a kid (in 2000–2010), the electricity shortage is much more common. In every summer, there would cut the electricity supply for residents many times. At that time, we need to prepare many candles at home for the power loss that could occur at any time. For many times, we even lost power at class, and we just continued to read books with candles.

但我小的时候(2000-2010年)，电力短缺问题要普遍很多。每年夏天，居民的电力供应都会中断很多次。那时候我们需要在家里准备很多蜡烛，以应对随时可能发生的停电。有好几次还在我们上课时停电了，我们只能点蜡烛继续看书。

Yu An

I just want to tell you, come here and see by yourself.

As a Chinese, I find this is a little bit insulting. When I'm watching some American tv shows, I often find images and lines about China but with bias. Always imply China is poor, dirty, bad, govern, not free balabala…

This is China in America tv shows. When I see this, I just wanna say are you kidding me

these are from tv shows called Resurrection

我只想告诉你，你自己来看看就知道了。

作为一个中国人，我觉得你这个问题着实有点侮辱人。我看美剧时，经常会发现一些跟中国有关的画面和台词，但都带有偏见。他们总想暗示中国很穷、很脏、很糟、没有之类的……

这是美国电视节目中的中国。我看到这个电视节目时，我只想说一句，你是在开玩笑吧。

这些画面都是电视剧《复活》里的。

This is the real China, as followed

而这才是真实的中国，请看下面的图片

So, don't let the media misleading you. Come and see the truth.

所以，千万别让媒体牵着你的鼻子走。睁眼看看真实的世界吧。

Daniel Zhou

Hmm…it depends on who is answering this question.

In China, there are two categories of electricity supply: civil electricity and industrial electricity. The pricing are different as well.

嗯，这要看是谁回答这个问题了。

在中国，电力供应分为两类：民用电力和工业电力，电费价格也不一样。

Civil electricity supply always has higher priority. In summer, more than half of China ‘s population live in the temperature above 38 Celsius (or 100 Fahrenheit) for 2 – 4 weeks. Cooling systems consume large volume of electricity and this demand is meet first. During this period there is not enough power for manufacture. Government has to cut the electricity to manufacture for a couple of hours per day, or supply in night time. Therefore for a residential he/she very likely agrees the electricity supply is constant 24/7 but for a factory worker, he/she may has to work at night in summer time.

民用电力供应是优先保障的。夏天的时候，超过一半的中国人需要经历2-4周的38摄氏度(或100华氏度)以上的高温。冷却系统耗电量大，首先要满足这一需求。在此期间，用于生产的电力会出现短缺。政府不得不每天把生产用电切断几个小时，或者在夜间供电。因此，对于居民来说，他/她很可能认为电力供应是24/7不变的，但对于工厂工人来说，他/她夏天可能不得不在晚上工作。

Thanks for Frank Wang’s comment:

Frank Wang: As of 2015, every single village with population of over 20, is covered within the state power grid.

In terms of electricity generation, China surpassed US in 2011. In 2015, China generated 5810.6 TWh, or 24.1% of the world. Followed by US 4303.0 TWh, 17.9% and India 1304.8 TWh, 5.4% respectively.

感谢Frank Wang的评论：

Frank Wang：截至2015年，所有人口超过20人的村庄都已接入国家电网。

2011年，中国发电量首次超过美国。2015年，中国发电5810.6太瓦时，占全球总发电量的24.1%。其次是美国4303.0太瓦时，占17.9%，印度1304.8太瓦时，占5.4%。

However, China’s population is about 3.5 times of US so the elec gen per ca pita is merely 40% of US. That is not enough for a “world factory”. By the end of 2017 Q1, China is building 20 nuclear power units and 76 hydro power stations are planning.

但中国的人口大约是美国的3.5倍，所以人均发电量只有美国的40%。这对于一个“世界工厂”来说是不够的。截至2017年第一季度，中国正在建设20座核电机组，还有76座水电站正在规划中。

Ravi Mittal

Yes.

I lived in China for 5 years and only instance when we had power cut was for 15min during a hurricane/typhoon.

I have travelled extensively within China. Been to tier4/5 cities and to some villages, interacted with migrant workers and no one seems to remember last time there was a power cut.

That is just amazing.

是的。

我在中国生活了5年，唯一一次停电是在刮台风的时候。

我也去中国各地旅行过。甚至去过四五线城市和一些村庄，也和农民工交流过，几乎都没有人记得上次停电是什么时候的事了。

太神奇了。

Sthitapragnya Deshpande

Yes - there is.

I too was curious about this when I started to live in China ("is this 24 hour supply only a feature of large cities and the coastal belt or it is all through the country?"), so I found a simple solution.

是的，24小时不间断供电。

当我开始来中国生活时，我也对此感到好奇过“这种24小时供应是大城市和沿海地区独享的，还是全国都有的?”，所以我找到了一个简单的解决方案。

I asked my students.

My students come from across China - and at least half of them come from rural China. A quarter of them have spent their childhood hel their parents in small farms, in tiny remote villages. They are from nearly all provinces of China - from Inner Mongolia to Sichuan, injiang, to Yunnan, and of course, from villages in the provinces of the coastal belt.

我就问我的学生。

我的学生来自中国各地，至少有一半来自中国农村，其中有四分之一学生的童年是在偏远的小村庄里帮父母干活。他们几乎来自中国所有的省份——从内蒙古到四川、新 疆到云南，当然，也有来自沿海省份的农村。

Not a single one of them had electricity issues at least for the past 5 years.

Some looked at me incredulously when I asked this question (a bit like asking a city person from India, "Do you get such good food in hotels all through the year?").

过去至少5年中，没人遇到过供电方面的问题。

当我问他们这个问题时，他们中有一些人难以置信地看着我，这就好比问印度的城市居民，“你们酒店里的食物一年四季都这么好吗?”。

I did not tell them that in India, "load shedding" was a common phrase used all through my childhood - power cuts continue to be the norm in cities and having power for just a few hours daily is the norm in villages and towns. Even today, it is only a handful of Indian cities that have 24 hours electricity. And "laltain" (lantern) is a common word understood in all towns and is even used in cities!

我没有告诉他们的是，在印度，我整个童年时期耳熟能详的一个短语就是“电力减负”——城市停电仍然是常态，乡村和城镇地区每天只有几个小时的电力供应。即便在今天，印度也只有少数城市能实现24小时供电。“laltain”（灯笼）是一个日常用词，所有城镇居民都能听懂，甚至在城市里也会有人说起这个词。

Eduardo G P Fox

I've been in China since one year now. So good timing to answer this. I live in Guangzhou which is a big city, in a university campus. I don't think there was any general blackout this year here, but I've been without electricity locally a few (about 6) times. I think in all cases they're fixng the power grid either in the building or in the campus. The problem is, those were on short prior notice and in Chinese, meaning I was caught by surprise every time. Nothing serious though. I hear in many campi they turn off the power after 23h to force students to sleep; not the case here.

我来中国已经一年了。很适合来回答这个问题。我住在广州的一个大学校园里，广州是一个大城市。今年这里没有发生过任何大面积停电，但我在当地遇到过几次停电(大约6次)。我认为这应该是因为他们在维护公寓楼或校园的电网。问题在于，这些停电都是临时通知的，而且都用的是中文，这意味着每次停电我都措手不及。不过这都算不上大事。我听说很多学校会在每天23点后切掉电源，让学生们睡觉；但我这里的大学不会这样。

Kael Tomato

Every time I see this kind of silly questions appearing in my e-mail, I am wondering why these foreigners are so willing to show how brainwashed they are by some kind of conspiracy theories, or how oblivious and ignorant they are. Frankly, I feel that your understanding of China is far from enough, and many of you guys see China as it was decades ago. What you don’t know is that this country has been develo at a speed much faster than your countries for decades.

每次我在电子邮件中看到这种愚蠢的问题，我就在想为什么这些外国人这么迫切地想要展示他们是如何被某种阴谋论洗脑的，亦或是他们到底有多健忘，多无知。坦率地说，我觉得你们对中国的了解实在太少太少了，在你们很多人想象中，中国还是几十年前的样子。但你们不知道的是，中国这几十年来的发展速度比你们国家可快多了。

As a Chinese I just tell you that, if you are really interested in China, then go to China and see, and then come back to your country and delete your silly questions. If you are not willing to visit China, then stop asking silly questions about China.

If you think my tone is too rough, imagine that some foreigners ask such question in quora : “In (your country), is there constant electricity supply for 24 hours throughout the year?”. Instead, the question you’ve asked is rather offensive to us.

作为一个中国人，我只想告诉你，如果你真的对中国感兴趣，那就亲自去中国看看，回国后赶紧删掉你那些愚蠢的问题。如果你不愿意去中国，那就别再问关于中国的愚蠢问题。

如果你觉得我的话太糙，不好听，那请想象一下如果有外国人在quora上提问这样的问题：“你的国家有全年24小时不间断的电力供应吗？”同样的，你提出的这个问题对我们来说是非常无礼的。

As a Chinese, I may have to consider unfollowing the topic “China” on quora, in order to stay in a good mood after I check my e-mail every morning.

My English is limited and I probably did not express my idea quite clear. If improper grammar, please forgive me.

作为一个中国人，我可能不得不考虑取消我在quora上关注的“中国”话题，这样才能在每天早晨查看电子邮件时还能保持良好的心情。

我的英语水平有限，也许没能很清楚地表达我的想法。如语法不当，请见谅。

David Field

LOL, seriously, I failed to understand this question at first, like someone is asking, “in US, is there enough air for everyone to breath ? ”

I thought it was my broken English preventing me from understanding this, while it turns out to be your ignorance about China.

Don't take it personally, I was kidding.

哈哈，说真的，一开始我都没看懂这个问题，这就好比有人在问，“美国有足够的空气供每个人呼吸吗？”

我一度以为是我自己英语不好，无法理解问题，可惜最后我发现是你对中国太过无知了。

别往心里去，我是开玩笑的。