Several Chinese cities break June heat records this week, stressing the nation’s power grid.

Since March, China has seen higher-than-normal temperatures. Meteorological institutes predict extreme nation-wide weather conditions which could eclipse last year’s two-month heatwave.

On Thursday, Shijiazhuang in Hebei province became the first provincial capital to reach 40 degrees Celsius this year, reports several state-owned media outlets.

Zhangjiakou and Chengde, cities in the same province, also broke temperature records for June.

At 10.00 local time on Friday, the Chinese meteorological authority issued new heightened heat warnings.

The capital of Beijing expects temperatures between 37 and 39 degrees until Saturday.

The Tianjin Meteorological Observatory raised its warning level to red with temperatures expected to hit 40 degrees.

The unrelenting heat spells has set the country’s grid operators on high alert. Some cities in the country’s southern region ask businesses and citizens to curb power consumption.

China’s National Energy Administration launched an emergency drill on the grid in East China on Thursday, simulating a power surge as a way to prepare warning and power management mechanisms.

The regional power network in East China, servicing economic key cities like Shanghai and Hangzhou, expects peak loads above 397GW this summer.

That is more than the combined electricity production capacity of Japan in 2021.

On Thursday, Shanghai’s state-owned energy and water companies announced measures to meet water and power demand this summer in efforts to avoid power outages, which hit the country in the summer last year.

In May last year, Shanghai experienced the hottest May in over a century.