People living in Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces have complained on social media about the lack of heating, and lifts and traffic lights not working.

Local media said the cause was a rise in coal prices leading to short supply.

The country is highly dependent on coal for power.

One power company said it expected the power cuts to last until spring next year, and that unexpected outages would become "the new normal".

The energy shortage at first affected manufacturers across the country, many of whom have had to curb or stop production in recent weeks.

But over the weekend residents in some cities saw their power cut intermittently as well.

Social media posts from the affected region said the situation was similar to living in neighbouring North Korea.

The Jilin provincial government said efforts were being made to source more coal from Inner Mongolia to address the coal shortage.

As we told, search for peak energy and peak coal on PV.