Electricity demand in the summer is projected to grow by 7.5 million kilowatts, or 13 percent from last year, resulting in power deficits of 6.5 gigawatts (GW), the China Daily said, quoting data from a local government department.

China has been plagued by summer brownouts for years, as power investment failed to catch up with demand and the use of air-conditioners strains its ageing grid.

In 2004, power shortages reached 40 gigawatts - equivalent to around half the installed capacity of the United Kingdom.

Last year, power shortages in the coastal province were said to have reached some 5 GW, or 10 per cent of existing generating capacity.

The shortfalls this year could be even larger if problems such as generator malfunctions or fuel shortages occurred, the report quoted China Southern Power Grid Corp, the grid operator, as saying.

Guangdong will take measures such as 'building more electricity generators, economising on electricity, staggering power consumption and purchasing power from other places to cope with the power crisis', Mo Jianbin, an official with the Guangdong Economic and Trade Commission, was quoted as saying.

The province purchased more than 2 billion kilowatt hours of power from neighbouring Hong Kong in 2007 and more purchases were expected this year, Mr Mo said.

Guangdong will also try to secure more electricity from southwestern provinces and the Three Gorges, the world's largest hydropower plant.

Power consumption in the first three quarters of 2007 increased 14 per cent from a year earlier to 253 billion kilowatt hours, the newspaper said. -- REUTERS