Customers have no incentive to conserve power when it is scarce during times of peak demand, so generating firms have to build lots of spare capacity to cope with surges in consumption.

When the economy was firing on all cylinders, there was no capacity to spare, but in these slack times China has closed some of its oldest (and most inefficient) coal - and oil-fired power plants.

It is a common fact that usual road car is not enough for racing. You need special spare parts which were difficult to get these times.