The China Electricity Council (CEC) on Tuesday said the nation's leading five power producers reported 10.57 billion yuan ($1.62 billion) of losses in their thermal power plants in the first four months of the year.

The figure was about 7.29 billion yuan more than the same period last year, said the CEC in a statement, attributing the reason to soaring coal prices.

They had 1.71 billion yuan of losses just in thermal power plants in April, the CEC said.

Due to dominating shares of their thermal power businesses, the five magnates reported 5.98 billion yuan of losses in all businesses in the first four months, up 3.84 billion yuan, year on year.

The CEC warned that the difficult performances in the sector posed "great risks" to ensure power supplies during the peak season this summer.

The five power magnates include China Huaneng Group, China Datang Corp., China Huadian Group, China Guodian Corp. and China Power Investment Corp., providing about half of the power for the country, according to the CEC.

(Xinhua News Agency May 18, 2011)