Pipes stay warm as mercury keeps low

By XU FAN (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-15 09:32

The capital's heating supply period will be extended by one week to March 22, without charge to residents, to confront low temperatures predicted over the coming days, the municipal government said Friday.

This is the capital's first time to prolong its heating supply period, according to the Beijing municipal commission of city administration and environment.

The scheduled heating supply for the capital annually runs from Nov 15 to March 15, following rules set by the Beijing heating supply administration regulation.

However, a recent weather forecast shows temperatures will remain low in the following days.

Guo Jinlan, chief forecaster at the Beijing weather bureau, told METRO the average temperature would be 3 to 4 C over the next week. "A fresh wave of cold air will arrive and the temperature won't increase as it normally does," Guo said.

The meteorologist added the cold weather wouldn't improve much by the end of the week. Guo said the capital was still "far from spring", normally defined as a period of five consecutive days with temperatures above 10 C.

An urgent conference to decide whether to prolong the heating supply was held last Thursday.

Guo said the heating supply extension would be free to Beijing residents. Businesses would be asked to pay, but will be given the opportunity not to accept.

The extension costs about 70 million yuan for one day's worth of public heating, according to the Beijing Times. Seven coal storage plants in the capital have made ready 300,000 tons of coal, estimated to provide 10 days of heating, according to the commission.

In a bid to battle a snowfall that covered the capital last year, the government switched on the heating supply two weeks earlier than the Nov 15 launch date for the first time in 22 years.

Beijing has 4,591 boilers and 2,070 heating supply units, with a pipe network covering more than 19,000 kilometers. It's residence area in need of heating supply totals 430 million sq m, according to data released by the commission.