RPT-China may hike consumer power prices by 5 pct in Nov

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BEIJING, Nov 6 (Reuters) - China may raise power prices charged on consumers by up to nearly 5 percent this month, state media reported on Friday, intensifying speculation that Beijing could make the first price move in 15 months very soon.

Grid operators' average electricity selling prices will be increased by 0.025 yuan a kilowatt hour (kWh), the Shanghai Securities News reported, citing a pricing plan but without identifying the sources.

Grid firms' average power selling price was 0.5231 yuan per kWh in 2008.

Benchmark on-grid tariffs for coal-fired power plants will also be adjusted, with those for plants in eastern China set to be cut down and those for stations in western China to be raised, the report said.

On-grid power prices for coal-fired power plants will be lowered by 0.007 yuan per kWh in Guangdong province, 0.01 yuan in Zhejiang and 0.005 yuan in Jiangsu.

Meanwhile, grid feed-in tariff in inland Shanxi province will be raised by 0.012 yuan per kWh, the report added.

The tilt, if it occurs, would assist some power generators in western China while undermining those in the east, but it could not change the landscape that on-grid power tariffs in eastern China are higher than in the western regions, analysts said.

The potential impact on China's five major power generating groups that each has business across the country would thus be limited or even muted, some analysts said.

These power groups include parents of China Power International (2380.HK), Datang International Power Generation Co Ltd (0991.HK)(601991.SS), Huadian Power (1071.HK)(600027.SS), Huaneng Power International (0902.HK)(600011.SS) and GD Power Development Co Ltd (600795.SS).

China raised only on-grid tariffs in August 2008 after hiking both on-grid and retail rates in July, as power generators bore the brunt of soaring coal costs in a global commodity boom.

Beijing said then that the increase in power purchasing costs that grid firms undertook because of the August hike would be accommodated in a next price move.

With coal prices having slumped from their record highs, power firms have swung back to be profitable this year but grid firms were operating at a loss.

Chinese power generators reaped 56.2 billion yuan ($8.23 billion) of profit in the first eight months of the year, 36.6 times more than a year earlier. Grid operators lost 4.39 billion yuan, compared with a profit of 18.5 billion yuan a year earlier, the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, said. ($1=6.826 Yuan) (Reporting by Jim Bai and Chen Aizhu, Editing by Jacqueline Wong)