Shandong's power grid load surged to a record high as a prolonged heatwave drove up cooling demand across the province.

At 11:19 a.m. on August 3, the grid's peak load reached 131 GW, surpassing the previous record of 130.21 GW set on August 22 last year by approximately 0.8 GW.

At that time, power imports into Shandong totaled 26.56 GW, while wind and solar combined contributed 56.87 GW (wind 3.77 GW, solar 53.10 GW). Provincial direct-dispatch units generated 41.21 GW, including 4.02 GW from nuclear units, and local power plants supplied 6.36 GW.

Nine cities — Binzhou, Dezhou, Dongying, Jinan, Linyi, Qingdao, Weihai, Weifang and Yantai — also saw their grid loads hit record highs.