(Yicai Global) May 31 -- China's electricity consumption will soar this summer as the economy is recovering steadily and temperatures are rising to scorching levels earlier, according to insiders.

Electricity supply will be generally adequate but not abundant, Shanghai Securities News reported today, citing power plant and grid insiders.

This summer, peak load in eastern China should jump almost 9 percent to 397.3 million kilowatts, according to the head of the State Grid's East China branch.

On May 22, in southern China, the peak load surpassed 200 million KW for the first time this year as temperatures started rising, per the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council. Power loads are predicted to be higher this month than a year ago in Guangdong, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Hainan provinces, as well as the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Electricity consumption will greatly pick up in the second quarter this year, and this will drive the consumption in the first half to rise around 6 percent from a year earlier, the China Electricity Council wrote in a report recently. The nationwide peak load is predicted to grow over 6 percent to 1.4 billion KW this year from last year if weather conditions are normal. But it could surge as much as 7.7 percent if the weather gets extreme for a long time.

China's total electricity consumption will tally from 9.2 trillion to 9.3 trillion kilowatt-hours this year, an uptick of 6 to 8 percent from last year, the State Grid Energy Research Institute predicted.

There is no shortage of one type of fuel source at least as northern China and transshipment ports have large quantities of coal in stock so thermal power plants will have no shortages of the raw material this summer, head of a power company in Henan province said.

The grid manager is increasingly using digital tools to ensure that supply and demand match. China Southern Power Grid has penned a memorandum of understanding with Alibaba Cloud, Baidu Cloud, and Huawei Technologies to hike the accuracy of power load estimates and improve supply stability and intelligent regulation via artificial intelligence.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi