Guangdong province, a main industrial hub, has been affected, as have Hainan island, a well-known tourist destination, and southwest China's Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Sichuan provinces, China Daily and other reports said.

The shortage was caused by a variety of factors including the closing of many small coal mines, the paper said, citing Xiao Peng, deputy general manager of network operator China Southern Power Grid.

Asia's second largest economy relies on coal for over 70 percent of its electricity needs.

Coal shortages in southwest China have caused "the biggest capacity shutdown since the China Southern Power Grid Corporation was founded," Caijing magazine quoted Xiao as saying.

The China Southern Power Grid Corporation was established in 2002, according to the company's website.

Sichuan stockpiles had fallen to 813,000 tonnes, and officials are concerned that they would dip below the critical point of 700,000 tonnes before China's most important holiday, the Spring Festival, the Huaxi Metropolitan News said.

Sichuan's biggest hydropower plants are also running below full-load capacity due low water levels, and bad weather that damaged the province's power distribution network, the newspaper said.

The shortfall in the south was also being blamed on a shortage of labour as many coal miners have left for home early ahead of the holiday, which falls in early February this year, according to the China Daily.

The Southern Power Grid will have to meet the energy shortfalls by buying expensive electricity from Hong Kong and the Three Gorges project, Xiao said.

However, the situation may ease with a decrease in demand as a downturn in the US economy and China's industrial restructuring might slow down the national economy later this year, the paper said in separate report.

"The second quarter of this year should be a turning point," said Zhou Xi'an, an official with the National Energy Leading Group, a ranking government agency. "From then on, growth will be downward or stable," he said.

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