China top power firms keep racking up loss on thermal power-CEC

BEIJING, June 21 (Reuters) - China's top five major state-owned power generating groups continued to rack up losses on their thermal power business in May despite the government raising power prices in April, the China Electricity Council said.

Mainly due to rising coal prices, the parents of Huaneng Power International , Huadian Power , Datang International Power Generation Co , China Power International and GD Power Development Co lost 1.69 billion yuan ($261 million) last month, largely flat from April, the council said in a report on its website (www.cec.org.cn).

These firms' thermal power businesses accumulated 12.2 billion yuan of loss in the first five months of this year, compared with losses of 4.3 billion yuan a year earlier, according to the council.

The council is an industry group representing power generators and distributors.

"In general, persisting operational difficulties pose a large risk on summer power supply," said the council.

China has warned of the worst summer power crunch in years as many coal-fired power plants, the mainstay of power supply, are generating at a loss due to rising coal costs and rigid power price caps.

Meanwhile, the increase in electricity demand remained fairly strong despite a moderation in economic growth.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top pricing agency, raised feed-in tariffs that coal-fired power plants sell to grid operators in 12 provinces from April 10 and another three provinces from June 1 by about 5 percent.

The authorities also lifted retail power prices that grid operators charge non-residential users in 15 provinces by about 3 percent from June 1, effectively passing on most of the increase in grid feed-in tariffs to consumers.

On-grid power prices for most gas-fired power generators were also increased. ($1 = 6.473 Chinese yuan) (Reported by Jim Bai and Chen Aizhu; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)