What happened

Power failed around midnight in parts of Guangzhou, with the utility confirming equipment trouble affecting customers around Sanyuanli and Luochongwei and restoring the confirmed outage after emergency repairs in about an hour. Loss of electricity also interrupted water pumping, broadband and mobile service in affected areas. Residents and social-media posts reported simultaneous darkness in Dongguan, Shenzhen, Foshan, Zhuhai and Guangzhou's Baiyun district, but the reviewed official account did not confirm that every reported city formed part of one grid event. The outage occurred during a broader Chinese electricity-supply squeeze and restrictions on Australian coal imports. Some residents and contemporary reporting linked it to coal scarcity, while Guangzhou authorities explicitly said the local outage was a sudden equipment failure rather than planned power rationing and said the city's supply remained balanced. This grouped marker therefore records the confirmed Guangzhou failure and clearly labels the wider multi-city extent and coal-shortage explanation as reported rather than established fact.

When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.