Beijing on Thursday began the monitoring of the city's 50 major electricity users.

The enterprises, in sectors including automobile manufacture, electronic and IT industries and transport, all have an annual energy consumption equivalent to more than 20,000 tons of standard coal.

"The real-time monitoring system, with an investment of six million yuan (US$872,000), is expected to provide an energy-saving plan for the enterprises, based on the information gathered," said Li Ping, a local government official.

The system will help the municipal government to map out energy plan by providing statistics for reference, he added. He said the government would monitor more Beijing enterprises in future.

Statistics revealed Beijing had cut energy consumption for every 10,000 yuan of GDP by more than five percent over the past two years.

(Xinhua News Agency January 18, 2008)