Sudden Demand For Electricity Restriction: Yiwu Lights Out

On the evening of December 17, a drizzle came to Yiwu. It was getting dark, and the street lights on both sides of North Chouzhou road were not on. But in the dense traffic flow and staggered whistle sound, Yiwu International Commodity City owners, buyers stepped up to leave.

Chouzhou North Road is always congested because it is the end of Yiwu International Trade City (zone 1). On December 17, the city closed earlier than usual. Signs placed at the exit of the main entrance warn the customers: due to the need of epidemic prevention and control, the market will be cleaned and disinfected after 4:30 p.m., and personnel are not allowed to enter.

Recently, a lot of places have come to "switch off and limit power". As a city involved, Yiwu is now in the forefront of the storm. The 21st century economic report reporter visited the city and found that some of the main road lights were turned off or partially turned off, and most of the shop signs on both sides of the road were turned off. The whole city has entered the power saving mode.

"The night before Yiwu was very bright." Su Ping, who has been in Yiwu International Trade City for four years, told the 21st century economic reporter. Because she is short-sighted, she will drive home very carefully these two days.

The duty of putting out street lights

Sudden demand for electricity restriction

On December 17, the topic of power rationing in Yiwu rushed into hot search, causing further fermentation of public opinion.

Xu Jun has a small jewelry factory in Yiwu, which mainly produces some earrings, headwear and other products and sells them to the domestic market.

"My factory was informed two days ago to move out of the way and shut down one day." Xu Jun told 21st century economic reporter that when the production line is stopped, all machines in the production line must be shut down, and only lighting facilities can be kept in the factory.

So far, Xu Jun can't understand why his own factories also need to limit electricity. Because of its limited scale, he thinks that the power consumption of his factory is not high every day. However, after consulting his peers, he found that similar Trinket production factories were basically informed that they were required to open three days a day, two days a day, and one day. "The requirements of each district are different. Fortunately, it will last until the end of this month."

It is different from other areas because of the power supply gap and alleviating the power pressure in winter. Yiwu's power rationing reasons clearly point to energy saving.

On December 13, the development and Reform Bureau of Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province, and the energy conservation office of Jinhua energy conservation and emission reduction leading group issued the energy conservation proposal, proposing the rational use of air conditioning system. In addition, the proposal also proposes the rational use of lighting, stopping and opening elevators below the third floor.

In addition, the 21st century economic report reporter obtained a "notice on strengthening the use and management of energy consumption equipment in construction sites" issued by Yiwu construction engineering quality and safety station, which shows that "according to the spirit of the provincial and municipal energy" double control "series of meetings, in order to further control the power consumption, reduce the city's GDP energy consumption, and win the battle of energy dual control", the construction sites in Yiwu City were promoted A series of work requirements were put forward.

In response to the notice, the staff of Yiwu construction engineering quality and safety station responded to the reporter of the 21st century economic report that "Zhejiang Province and Yiwu City have held several meetings on the" dual control "of energy, and we have also implemented the spirit of the meeting and received the notice.

According to the implementation plan for further strengthening energy "dual control" and promoting high-quality development in Zhejiang Province (2018-2020), Zhejiang will establish an energy "dual control" forced transformation and upgrading system by 2020; on the basis of the balance of all cities, the accumulated energy use space will be more than 6 million tons of standard coal.

Obviously, a power rationing action in response to the "dual control" of energy is spreading throughout Yiwu. But 21st century economic reporter learned that power rationing does not cover all enterprises. In an interview with 21st century economic reporter, the person in charge of a domestic new energy leading enterprise's product manufacturing factory in Yiwu said, "we have received the (power restriction) Notice, but it is not compulsory for our factory. We are still running full power production."

However, Zhou Wei, who opened a clothing factory in Yiwu, was not so lucky. Near the end of the year, it is the peak of delivery, especially the risk of delayed performance of some export goods. At a time when logistics and transportation were still blocked due to the epidemic, the power restriction notice required the production line of Zhouwei factory to be shut down until the end of the month. "The factory has already piled up a lot of goods. It is a good thing that foreign trade orders are booming in the second half of the year, but I didn't expect a notice." Zhou Wei told the 21st century economic reporter.

"World supermarket" closes ahead of schedule

Yiwu has the world's largest small commodity wholesale market - Yiwu International Commodity City, with an export-oriented degree of more than 65%.

This trade city, known as the "World supermarket", integrates shopping and tourism. Here, Su Ping's Trinket shop has been open for four years. In the face of buyers and tourists coming and going every day, she does not need to take the initiative to solicit customers. Her shop already has a stable group of buyers. Under the positioning of export oriented, the appearance of Sunping ornaments is larger, and "glittering" and "glittering" -- the commodity style is a little exaggerated in China, but it is very popular with foreigners She told 21st century business reporter.

In order to highlight the shining characteristics of jewelry, lighting is essential. The 21st century economic report reporter visited and found that every shop in the jewelry area of Yiwu International Commodity City was equipped with a lot of lamps - several fluorescent tubes and several rows of spotlights.

"The city is dark outside and bright inside." Su Ping joked to the 21st century economic reporter, "the lights on both sides of the shop are enough to support the interior lighting of the whole business city."

However, the notice came suddenly. On December 16, the staff of the trade city gave an oral notice to each shop, demanding that the spotlights should be turned off and only fluorescent lighting should be reserved. Although not every shop is "obedient", Su Ping realizes that the "power restriction in Yiwu" as mentioned in the news has indeed begun to land.

The power restriction of the trade city brings some inconvenience to the people who come to purchase and visit. The 21st century economic reporter visited and observed that the escalators and electronic screens leading to the second floor at the main entrance of the first district of the trade city were all closed, and the lights of some restaurants and even the interior lights were off, and the signboards could not be seen for a moment in the dim light.

Zhu Jian's jewelry store has been in the business city for some years, mainly selling hairpins, necklaces, rings and other accessories. According to his understanding, in addition to being required to turn off part of the lights, some shops installed air conditioning also do not let go.

Some shops showed reporters of the 21st century economic report the power restriction notice they saw. Among them, the requirements of Yiwu International Trade City are that indoor lighting should be reduced by more than one third, and daily electricity consumption should be reduced by more than 20%. However, Zhu Jian believes that the power rationing in the trade city will not affect the normal operation of shops. "The impact is limited, because most of the shops in the city are closed at 5:00 p.m., and some insist on 8:00 p.m."

However, as his main sales channel is Taobao and other e-commerce platforms, he is usually the shop owner who "leaves work at 8:00 p.m.". To this end, he followed the example of other shops to secretly use the self purchased silent frequency conversion generator.

However, this "vacancy" has also been "sealed off". On December 17, the commerce and Trade City announced that due to the need of epidemic prevention and control, the site was cleaned and disinfected after 4:30 p.m., and personnel were not allowed to enter. "World supermarket" was closed in advance.

With the turn off of street lights and shop sign lights, Yiwu has a lot of darkness at night. Some citizens complain that it is inconvenient to travel at night. In response, the Yiwu Municipal government officially responded to the media on December 17 that the reason for the power rationing and not turning on street lights was to respond to the energy conservation and emission reduction policy, which lasted until the end of the year.

One episode is that in the evening, when the 21st century economic reporter came to KFC, which is opposite Yiwu International Trade City, two suspected Street workers came into the shop and asked the shop assistants that the sign lights outside could not be turned on by the end of the year.

"It will be spot checked." One of them stressed.

(Su Ping, Xu Jun, Zhou Wei and Zhu Jian are pseudonyms)